Holden Cup crucial to growth of league: Doyle

Junior Warriors player Tomas Aoake scores a try. Photo / Dean Purcell

Warriors managing director Jim Doyle believes the NRL risk losing ground to rugby if the Holden Cup is scrapped, with the Under 20s competition being crucial to the continued growth of the game, especially in New Zealand.

NRL club chief executives will meet in Sydney on Thursday to discuss the future of the Holden Cup, with the majority believed to be backing a plan to divide it into New South Wales and Queensland competitions at the end of the 2016 season.

Doyle sees no issue with that provided Sky TV continued to televise the Warriors Under 20s games in New Zealand, while any changes to the Holden Cup would see the club seek inclusion in a NSW competition as they already have a team in the NSW Cup.

"With the Under 20s being on TV and the fact that the Warriors have won three of the last five competitions it has been really good for the profile of rugby league and a really good recruitment tool," Doyle told the Sydney Morning Herald today.

"I know there has been talk about it not being a national competition but becoming state-based and I think as long as Sky keeps showing it on TV and as long as the Warriors still do well then it will still get a lot of profile and still be a real big positive for us."

The high-profile Under 20s competition provides the 13-man game with an enticing lure for schoolboy rugby players, with the Warriors attracting numerous cross-code signings since the competition was introduced in 2008.

Warriors backs Konrad Hurrell, Solomone Kata, and Ngani Laumape, rookie prop Albert Vete, former fullback Omar Slaimankhel, and 2016 signing Roger Tuivasa-Sheck, all made the switch to play in the Holden Cup after starring at schoolboy level in the 15-man game.

Any changes to the structure of the Under 20s competition could allow the Warriors the chance to enhance their junior pathways, with Doyle suggesting they could look at entering an Under 18s team in the NSW-based SG Ball competition.

"A lot of kids who play rugby union switch over to play rugby league because of the profile of the Under 20s so we would want to maintain that," he said.

"As long as they keep it under 20s, as long as the pathways are still there, it would be OK.
"At the moment you have got Under 16s and Under 18s with the Harold Mathews and the SG Ball and then you have got the Under 20s and open aged NSW Cup.

"Maybe the next step for us is to have an Under 18s team that plays in the SG Ball as well as an Under 20s and a NSW Cup team."