KURT Hancock can see the positives behind Country Rugby League changing the Senior Men’s Country Championships format in 2017, but he also called for further change.
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From next year, the annual titles will swap from the open age competition format that was used this year, to under 23s.
The new competition structure will see 10 teams competing across two pools in a knockout format, the victors then advancing to decided who will be crowned Country Champion.
Hancock, who coached both Group 10 premier league outfit St Pat’s and the under 21 Western Rams this season, thinks those changes have not gone far enough.
Rather than a knockout format, Hancock wants to see representative teams given the assurance they will play more than once match.
“While they are still having a knockout competition, I think it’s going to be a hard to attract even the best under 23-year-olds,” he said.
“Unless you are guaranteed to get the best under 23-year-olds in Western Division to turn up and play football, it’s going to be tough.
“I think they should have a better competition, something that goes for three or four games then semis and a final.
“When you ask guys to play in a one-off game, or it has the chance to be a one-off, it is a bit less incentive for them.
“You are not getting that exposure if it’s a one-off game.”
Hancock feels a round-robin type competition would not only offer players more incentive to take part in the Country Championships, but give them a greater chance of further representation.
“If there is a handy player and it’s a knockout thing, if his team plays badly in the first game and they do go out, what sort of exposure is that player going to get? He’s done and dusted,” Hancock said.
“But if you are in a competition where you’re playing three or four games, it will give you something like six weeks working together as a team. I think that gives you a bit more thirst for knowledge too.
“If there’s the opportunity to only have one game, you are not going to learn as much as a player.”
As for the change from an open age competition to under 23, Hancock said he can “see both sides of the argument.”
When he pulled on a Western Division jumper in 2004 and went on to be crowned a Country Championships winner, he was 24.
But this year Hancock often spoke of pathways that the under 21s Western outfit he coached provided younger players.
“I got picked up for Western when I was 24. Back then if that hadn’t of happened, I probably wouldn’t have played NRL and I did that when I was 25,” he said.
“At least they are trying, I think it’s headed in the right direction. They are trying to think of new ways to keep a pathway for the younger players.
“But what sort of incentive does, for example, a Simon Osborne play for now? He was 35 this year and he was probably the best player in Western Division.
“Or what about a Jeremy Gordon who is getting around 30 now? He was Group 10 player of the year, but how does he get any sort of exposure?”
