LEAGUE - Contest aims to beef up the game

A PROPOSED Kaitaia-based senior rugby league competition may change the shape of the game in Northland if it gets the backing its promoters are expecting.
Leon Ruka and Scotty Murray are seeking sanction from the New Zealand Rugby League to run a Far North competition, which they hope will complement the Northland competition run by the Whangarei and Districts Rugby League.
Ruka, a former Moerewa Tigers player who now lives in Kaitaia, said the idea behind the competition, provisionally named Te Hiku O Te Ika O Maui, is to make the game strong again in the region.
"We want to make rugby league strong again in the Far North, we want to get league going again up here in Kaitaia," he said.
Only one Kaitaia team was entered in the W&D; League last season but the Kaitaia Legends had to pull the plug on their season after failing to get enough players to maintain a squad.
Ruka believes there are enough players in the area to support a competition and has a big carrot to offer teams who may be interested in joining.
"Travelling has been one of the reasons that Kaitaia teams have got into trouble in the past, it costs too much just to pay for the buses," he said.
They have already secured $10,000 sponsorship from local businesses in Kaitaia and intend to offer $8000 of that for the winners of the inaugural competition.
With prize money like that on offer, the mid-northern clubs like Waitangi, Hokianga and Kaiokohe may just think about entering - and that wouldn't worry Ruka at all.
He has already been in contact with his old club to let them know of his plans.
"Moerewa has always liked being in the Whangarei competition and I understand that - so I've told them to think about it and we've dangled a carrot in front of them and left it at that," he said.
He has had the best intentions of talking over the proposed competition with the Whangarei-based league and has tried to attend two delegates meetings without any success.
"I went down to put the proposal on the table, but both times I've tried the meeting has been postponed at the last minute. Things haven't changed there," he laughed, "so we've gone ahead and we'll go to the next meeting and talk it over with them."
Ruka said he is hopeful that a North-South competition may arrive with the top two teams of both competitions going on to play off for an overall Northland title.
"If we could get six or seven teams up here and six or seven down there, then at the end of the year we could see the two top teams in each competition play off for the Northland title," he said.
"We're only interested in making the game stronger here in the north - not only up here - but in the whole of Northland," he said.
Ruka was a backer of the State of Origin league competition in Kaitaia in 2006, which saw four teams play a short but successful competition - with many teams drawing heavily on rugby players who had finished their club season.
W&D; League chairperson Sharon Bird said she had yet to hear more than "whispers" about the competition and would wait until Ruka and Murray had presented their ideas to the board before forming an official position.
"I'm really in the dark about what's happening in the Far North, but if they can get something going up there good on them," she said.
"I don't think it will take any teams from our competition although we have a couple of teams in the Bay of Islands, so that will be a choice for them."