The Dunedin club rugby league competition has been abandoned for 2008 after the New Zealand Rugby League pulled funding for the Southern Alliance, a combined club competition with Invercargill.
Rugby League Otago chairwoman Amy Valentine said she discovered there was no funding from the national body only three weeks out from the competition, when she approached the NZRL.
Valentine said she was left with no time to find alternative funding.
It is understood the NZRL contributed about $10,000 to the competition, predominantly to meet ground hire, the cost of team uniforms and travel between Dunedin and Invercargill for matches.
‘‘Maybe if they had confirmed it to the district earlier then we could have sourced other funding,'' Valentine said yesterday.
‘‘They knew what the cost was to run this competition so therefore should have said to me ‘we're looking at pulling funding on the Southern Alliance. This is what we budget for, so how about you see if you can come up with some of that money?'''
Earlier this year, the NZRL announced it had reviewed its budgets last December because of the serious financial issues it faced and some positions within the organisation had been cut.
Attempts to contact the NZRL for comment in Auckland yesterday were unsuccessful.
Dunedin's problems seem to have stemmed from the NZRL's decision to dis-establish the southern zone general manager's position, which was previously filled by Graeme Sole, based in Christchurch.
Valentine said Sole had been a driving force behind league in the lower South Island and she questioned whether the NZRL was committed to league outside Auckland, Wellington and
Christchurch.
‘‘We're just a small district, so New Zealand Rugby League really needs to give us a hand. If they send one of their people down here to help train administrations, help train clubs on the administration and funding side of things, then the sustainability of a league district would be a lot more enhanced,'' Valentine said.
‘‘They go on about grass roots and how important it is for the foundation of league. However, they are not willing to help those people who are actually at the grassroots level, like Dunedin.''
Rugby League Otago also failed an NZRL audit for the 2007 season, but Valentine is critical of the way it was carried out and the lack of information made available to her about the process.
‘‘I didn't know how to prepare an audit for a district. Show me how to do it and I can do it. But leave me in the lurch and of course I'm not going to pass.''
Rugby union appears to be the big winner from league's demise, with a large number of players returning to the 15-man code in Dunedin.
The South City Dragons are now playing as part of the Zingari club in the senior competition, while several premier teams have also picked up league players.
The only option this year was to play a Dunedin-only competition between possibly five teams Valentine said most clubs felt without a joint Invercargill competition the league would be predictable and boring.
She said league in the city had suffered over the years through a lack of people prepared to step in and help at an administration level.
‘‘There was just little old me, a mother of four with a fifth on the way, trying to run a guys sport.
‘‘It look a lot of hard work.
‘‘People are keen to help and if I ask them to do it, they do it. But it's the commitment, the monthly meetings and applying, or grovelling, for funding that they don't want to know about.''
