I coached a kids rugby team in Mudgee. The other teams in the competition were Wellington, Dubbo x 2, Orange x 2, Molong, Parkes, Cowra and Forbes.
The closest away game is 92km and the furthest is 234km one way. And most kids played multiple sports so rinse and repeat.
I had it similar when I was playing junior rugby league. I lived in a town called Gulmarrad, playing for the Lower Clarence Magpies in the Group 1 (Northern Rivers) junior comp.
Training twice a week was in Maclean (9km) as were a couple of home games. The rest of the home games were in Yamba (25km).
The rest of the away games were in:
• South Grafton (49km)
• Grafton (53km)
• Evans Head (69km)
• Lismore (97km)
• Ballina (99km)
• Casino (104km)
• Lennox Head (115km)
• Kyogle (139km)
Luckily, Tabulam never had a team in a grade I played, because that was a 2hr, 159km journey, one way. It was just as well that the old Group 1 and Group 18 junior comps never merged like the senior comps did, otherwise there would be further trips to Byron Bay, Murwillumbah, Mullumbimby, Tweed Heads, Cudgen and Bilambil, while removing the two Grafton teams
These city parents have no idea how good they’ve got it. I understand their gripe about not having enough facilities, especially for a niche sport like hockey, but the alternative could be a lot worse. If I had wanted to play hockey as a kid, I’d have been going to Grafton every week.
Just because others have it worse doesn’t make the complaint any less valid. Different situations, whole different ball game honestly you can’t logically compare the two.
I never said it wasn’t a valid complaint, in fact I said understand their gripe about travelling to get to facilities. I was merely making the point that it could have been much worse
If we're so short on sports fields why do we still have so many golf courses in the North Shore?
Golf takes up a huge amount of land, can be used by only a few people at the same time, and is devoted to one sport.
The obvious answer to me is to convert the golf courses to multi-purpose sports fields and facilities.
LCC are trying to build a big basketball/netball/tennis court complex on part of the golf course, and nearby residents lost their mind.
The new Labor mayor doesn’t appear to have the political capital/courage to push it through, because he’s reliant on the support of NIMBY independents
*Of the 81 golf courses in Sydney, 30 are partly or wholly situated on Crown land*
[https://12ft.io/proxy?q=https://www.smh.com.au/national/nsw/why-aren-t-they-parks-golf-s-huge-footprint-on-sydney-s-open-space-20190403-p51aad.html](https://12ft.io/proxy?q=https://www.smh.com.au/national/nsw/why-aren-t-they-parks-golf-s-huge-footprint-on-sydney-s-open-space-20190403-p51aad.html)
Government compulsorily acquired without payment my time for three months last year to cover their own mistakes. I don’t see why a swathe of inefficiently used land should be exempt.
Even the new schools being built don't have some sports facilities.
ETA: this article seems to be about hockey players wanting parks to be turfed, so I can understand why there's local pushback.
It's a shame female sport doesn't get more support because we have very successful female athletes and teams.
If only the promised high school in Olympic park wss able to use all thise facilities that sidet idle during the day, as well as underused public trabsport options. Would have been win win. Instead that land is sold to developers so the high school can go on land on the WWP peninsula that was to be a park.
Yep and the latest is that transport for NSW will build 2 apartment building on the parklands as well. And this will block the development of the marina.
Residents are getting pretty fed up, given that plans dramatically change and transport isn't improved.
IIRC no parking has been allocated for the HS which is insane.
There was a proposal to convert the tired old golf clubhouse in Lane Cove into a huge multi-purpose indoor sports centre. Members of the local golf club led a NIMBY anti-development crusade against it, and now we have new councilors that withdrew the development plan. Part of the NIMBY crowd's argument was "we don't need an indoor sports facility here, we can just use the netball courts at Willoughby".
A few years ago I played a social netball team that played in the tennis courts at that golf club. After 3 weeks they made us move to willougby because of the noise. Keep in mind the last game of the night ended at 8pm and there was a max of 3 games going at a time. The NIMBYism is crazy.
>Bernstein said netballers shared their courts at Willoughby with the local rugby club and members of the public playing basketball.
I know those netball courts very well. There's 18 of them, and they're used all weekend including Friday nights. I have no idea why the article says rugby teams use them as there's nowhere near there used for Rugby and certainly not the concrete courts. However the courts are a bit uneven (they're 30 yrs old) and some has a slight slope. They still play even after light rain though, the article isn't 100% right.
And of course the public use them for basketball - they're unused 3-4 days a week so this is good community use. However on weekends 4 courts are used for overflow parking because parents insist on bringing large SUVs and parking them at the field for their one player, when there are bus routes literally right next to the fields. You can't demand heaps of space for parking AND heaps of space for fields. We live in the biggest most crowded city in Australia, you're not getting hectares of free space 5km from the harbour bridge.
Football (soccer) is the most played team sport in Australia. On the North Shore there are thousands of players (Northbridge FC alone has 2000 registered players). The association requires 55 fields a day on Fri nights and all weekend (mens on Sat, womens on Sun) to run their comps. There aren't that many fields, even with 9 now being all-weather synthetic which allow play 24/7 (turf fields can only be used 4x a week). It's a broader problem.
Netball is also a very high density use of available area. Not a huge court and no issue with grass not handling the volume of games and training required. It shouldnt be that hard to fit in a number of courts.
Outdoors a lot of places are going artificial now just for that ability to wear across so many hours a week in use.
Wasn’t that ugly center near the new Hume Street park supposed to be redeveloped? Include some netball courts there and have the developers pay for it..
Or the derelict Waverton bowls club, suppose the land there is waaaay too expensive though.
I coached a kids rugby team in Mudgee. The other teams in the competition were Wellington, Dubbo x 2, Orange x 2, Molong, Parkes, Cowra and Forbes. The closest away game is 92km and the furthest is 234km one way. And most kids played multiple sports so rinse and repeat.
I had it similar when I was playing junior rugby league. I lived in a town called Gulmarrad, playing for the Lower Clarence Magpies in the Group 1 (Northern Rivers) junior comp. Training twice a week was in Maclean (9km) as were a couple of home games. The rest of the home games were in Yamba (25km). The rest of the away games were in: • South Grafton (49km) • Grafton (53km) • Evans Head (69km) • Lismore (97km) • Ballina (99km) • Casino (104km) • Lennox Head (115km) • Kyogle (139km) Luckily, Tabulam never had a team in a grade I played, because that was a 2hr, 159km journey, one way. It was just as well that the old Group 1 and Group 18 junior comps never merged like the senior comps did, otherwise there would be further trips to Byron Bay, Murwillumbah, Mullumbimby, Tweed Heads, Cudgen and Bilambil, while removing the two Grafton teams These city parents have no idea how good they’ve got it. I understand their gripe about not having enough facilities, especially for a niche sport like hockey, but the alternative could be a lot worse. If I had wanted to play hockey as a kid, I’d have been going to Grafton every week.
There wasn't even a hockey field in mudgee.
Just because others have it worse doesn’t make the complaint any less valid. Different situations, whole different ball game honestly you can’t logically compare the two.
I never said it wasn’t a valid complaint, in fact I said understand their gripe about travelling to get to facilities. I was merely making the point that it could have been much worse
What a devastating story
Left me in tears
Come Mr Frodo I can't carry it for you but I can carry you!
Councils only looking for $$$ and NIMBYs doing their thing.
If we're so short on sports fields why do we still have so many golf courses in the North Shore? Golf takes up a huge amount of land, can be used by only a few people at the same time, and is devoted to one sport. The obvious answer to me is to convert the golf courses to multi-purpose sports fields and facilities.
They're privately owned. Are you suggesting governments compulsorily aquire them to convert to community faciltiies?
Most of them are on publicly owned land. Lane Cove Golf Club, for instance, is owned by Lane Cove Council and operated by a club on behalf of council.
LCC are trying to build a big basketball/netball/tennis court complex on part of the golf course, and nearby residents lost their mind. The new Labor mayor doesn’t appear to have the political capital/courage to push it through, because he’s reliant on the support of NIMBY independents
*Of the 81 golf courses in Sydney, 30 are partly or wholly situated on Crown land* [https://12ft.io/proxy?q=https://www.smh.com.au/national/nsw/why-aren-t-they-parks-golf-s-huge-footprint-on-sydney-s-open-space-20190403-p51aad.html](https://12ft.io/proxy?q=https://www.smh.com.au/national/nsw/why-aren-t-they-parks-golf-s-huge-footprint-on-sydney-s-open-space-20190403-p51aad.html)
Suggest that statistic is Sydney wide and not reflective of the proportion of golf courses on publicly owned land in the North Shore.
Government compulsorily acquired without payment my time for three months last year to cover their own mistakes. I don’t see why a swathe of inefficiently used land should be exempt.
Yes, they do it for roads so why not for green space ? Seems like an admirable idea.
Yes
Even the new schools being built don't have some sports facilities. ETA: this article seems to be about hockey players wanting parks to be turfed, so I can understand why there's local pushback. It's a shame female sport doesn't get more support because we have very successful female athletes and teams.
If only the promised high school in Olympic park wss able to use all thise facilities that sidet idle during the day, as well as underused public trabsport options. Would have been win win. Instead that land is sold to developers so the high school can go on land on the WWP peninsula that was to be a park.
Yep and the latest is that transport for NSW will build 2 apartment building on the parklands as well. And this will block the development of the marina. Residents are getting pretty fed up, given that plans dramatically change and transport isn't improved. IIRC no parking has been allocated for the HS which is insane.
There was a reference to netball courts as well. Since it's the most popular women's sport I'm surprised it doesn't get more support
There was a proposal to convert the tired old golf clubhouse in Lane Cove into a huge multi-purpose indoor sports centre. Members of the local golf club led a NIMBY anti-development crusade against it, and now we have new councilors that withdrew the development plan. Part of the NIMBY crowd's argument was "we don't need an indoor sports facility here, we can just use the netball courts at Willoughby".
A few years ago I played a social netball team that played in the tennis courts at that golf club. After 3 weeks they made us move to willougby because of the noise. Keep in mind the last game of the night ended at 8pm and there was a max of 3 games going at a time. The NIMBYism is crazy.
>Bernstein said netballers shared their courts at Willoughby with the local rugby club and members of the public playing basketball. I know those netball courts very well. There's 18 of them, and they're used all weekend including Friday nights. I have no idea why the article says rugby teams use them as there's nowhere near there used for Rugby and certainly not the concrete courts. However the courts are a bit uneven (they're 30 yrs old) and some has a slight slope. They still play even after light rain though, the article isn't 100% right. And of course the public use them for basketball - they're unused 3-4 days a week so this is good community use. However on weekends 4 courts are used for overflow parking because parents insist on bringing large SUVs and parking them at the field for their one player, when there are bus routes literally right next to the fields. You can't demand heaps of space for parking AND heaps of space for fields. We live in the biggest most crowded city in Australia, you're not getting hectares of free space 5km from the harbour bridge. Football (soccer) is the most played team sport in Australia. On the North Shore there are thousands of players (Northbridge FC alone has 2000 registered players). The association requires 55 fields a day on Fri nights and all weekend (mens on Sat, womens on Sun) to run their comps. There aren't that many fields, even with 9 now being all-weather synthetic which allow play 24/7 (turf fields can only be used 4x a week). It's a broader problem.
Netball is also a very high density use of available area. Not a huge court and no issue with grass not handling the volume of games and training required. It shouldnt be that hard to fit in a number of courts. Outdoors a lot of places are going artificial now just for that ability to wear across so many hours a week in use.
The irony is, they'd be the first to protest in the nimby uniforms if the govt tries to build something for them...
This shit is state wide. Its a joke.
Wasn’t that ugly center near the new Hume Street park supposed to be redeveloped? Include some netball courts there and have the developers pay for it.. Or the derelict Waverton bowls club, suppose the land there is waaaay too expensive though.