The Peter McDonald Premiership draw is a shambles.
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Having played team sport for much of my life, there's nothing better than travelling to a town as a club and watching your young guns soar in the morning, before those same players get to sit back and enjoy a cracking game of first grade.
But more important than just enjoying the atmosphere of a four team club day out - of which is meant to be the case in the combined Group 10 and Group 11 competition - is the point of actually getting teams out onto the park to perform and allow fans the same opportunity to watch.
This season alone has already gotten off to a shaky start; first with Cowra Magpies announcing they were not going to field a first grade outfit, followed by news that the Wellington Cowboys had pulled the pin on an under 18s side for 2023.
These two bombshells meant that the Cowboys would be the only PMP side without a junior team this year, while the Magpies would join the Blayney Bears as clubs fielding just the reserve grade, league tag and 18s.
Through no fault of the clubs - who would have tried their very best to field all four grades - these changes have caused chaos with the season's draw, despite the competition having already kicked off with an NRL showcase event between the Mudgee Dragons and defending premiers, the Forbes Magpies.
![How will Orange CYMS, Hawks and Macquarie fare in 2023? How will Orange CYMS, Hawks and Macquarie fare in 2023?](/images/transform/v1/crop/frm/YN4FA67iw2pXwXjwm2vmnJ/5ba84687-f3c0-49ea-aa44-c26a643669bc.png/r0_0_1920_1079_w1200_h678_fmax.jpg)
During an interview with NSWRL, regional manager Tim Del Guzzo spoke of the "exciting" changes for 2023 with all four grades supposedly coming together to play the same draw.
"We had a big season review at Wellington last year, and we spoke about what worked and didn't work, and the main takeaway was that all teams wanted all four grades playing on the same day," he said.
"Group 10 and Group 11 teams will still play against teams in their Group twice, and there will be four crossover games, with two at the start of the year and two in the middle of the year, and all four grades will be involved in these crossover games.
"Plus, for those crossover games, we have tried to make it a return match compared to the fixtures we had last year."
But while words are nice, in actuality, there will be teams almost every single round who are not playing the same games as their clubmates.
In the most recent version of the draw posted to the Group 10 Facebook page, during no less than ten of the 15 competition rounds, a club's first grade side will either not play on the same day or in the same town as their ressies, league tag and 18s.
![Splitting up first grade, ressies, league tag and 18s is a disaster waiting to happen Splitting up first grade, ressies, league tag and 18s is a disaster waiting to happen](/images/transform/v1/crop/frm/YN4FA67iw2pXwXjwm2vmnJ/3c665b6f-49fd-49ae-b4a6-53174253b548.jpg/r0_0_1839_1792_w1200_h678_fmax.jpg)
We've crunched the numbers and here is how clubs can expect to be impacted by that throughout the season.
Round 3: The first lot of split games is the most understandable, with Panthers and St Pat's slated to play their first grade derby on Saturday as the prelude to the NRL clash at Carrington Park. Reserves, league tag and 18s will all play on Friday at Jack Arrow Oval.
Round 4: Following on from the representative break, Hawks will be split in two, with firsts travelling to Bathurst on Sunday to play the Panthers, while the rest will have to play in Cowra.
Round 6: Here's where it starts to get really interesting. Mudgee's under 18s will have the bye, while the other three sides enjoy a home stand St Pat's (first grade) and Blayney (LT and ressies). What this means for the Saints is that on the same day, their remaining teams will have to play at - you guessed it, Cowra. This means there is just no feasible way for any ressies players to back up in the first grade game if needed.
Round 7: A round which is split up over five separate dates - ranging from June 3 to June 18, will see Orange CYMS and Nyngan both negatively impacted.
For the green and golds, their first grade outfit will take on the Wolves in Lithgow on the Saturday, while the other three grades will travel to Cowra on the Sunday. For those wishing to travel to see all the games, that means you're in for roughly 420km worth of driving.
For the Tigers, their under 18s may well have to go it alone in the first lot of Magic Round games scheduled to be played in Cowra on June 17, because their senior sides will be hosting Wellington at Larkin Oval the very next day; a big ask for the most dedicated of club stalwart.
Moving on from there, we have issues in round 8 (Panthers), round 10 (Panthers), round 11 (Mudgee), round 13 (Lithgow), round 14 (Mudgee) and round 15 (Lithgow).
Suffice to say, clubs will not be playing the same draw, despite what NSWRL officials might say.
Now, I understand the world is not a perfect place and something had to be done to accommodate Blayney, Cowra and Wellington, but when this impacts two-thirds of the season, surely there must be a better way?
Del Guzzo previously said clubs with towns the size on Nyngan, Wellington and Cowra needed to be realistic when thinking about their future.
"To answer frankly yes, clubs should consider which competition is best for their players and community," he said.
"We've seen a great example in Narromine going from struggling in Group 11 to thriving in Castlereagh League. The club and community has re-connected with rugby league to the point where they were awarded the NSWRL and NRL community club of the year."
With the Mid-West and Woodbridge Cup competitions having merged - allowing clubs from bigger areas like Orange United and CSU (Bathurst) - to play against comparatively smaller towns, could this mean more teams are headed the way of Woodbridge in the future?
Well, if officials can't fix the draw, then teams may be forced to find a home where all sides can be accommodated.
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