Sideline Sid Sports correspondant & historian www.sunlive.co.nz

Every man and his dog that follows Bay of Plenty Club rugby has an opinion on what's going to happen next year - so here's Sideline Sid's tuppence worth.

While Western Bay of Plenty are happy with the current set-up, the talk is that Rotorua and Eastern Bay of Plenty are throwing their toys out of the cot and are going to start their own competition if they don't get their way.

The two other regions say that the club rugby power base has shifted to the Western Bay of Plenty and they have little representation in the two Baywide club divisions.

However when Baywide rugby was introduced before the millennium, Rotorua ruled the roost with the likes of Ngongotaha, Waikite, Whakarewarewa and Rotoiti heading the top echelon, along with the Eastern Bay having a strong presence in the other two divisions.

Two or three years ago, the Bay Rugby Union initiated full and frank consultation with all of the stakeholders in the Bay of Plenty, with the present two divisions of ten teams universally receiving a big tick of approval.

One of the key principals of the current Baywide competitions is automatic promotion/relegation in both grades each season. What has happened is that the Western Bay clubs have risen to the challenge of the new competition, with all the bigger clubs getting serious about Baywide rugby.

The folks from over the hill and down the road now say that there are too many Western Bay sides playing Baywide rugby want to change the rules. They want four teams from each region in both the premier and division one competitions and if they don't get their own way, they are going to create their own competitions.

Sid believes that the basic problem is that there are too many clubs in the Eastern and Central regions of the Bay. The problem is that there are 39 rugby clubs in the Bay of Plenty, where as Auckland and Wellington have less than half the Bay's numbers of clubs.

The face of Auckland and Wellington club rugby has changed dramatically over the last two or three decades with amalgamation. Sid believes that amalgamation is the answer to Eastern Bay and Rotorua's problems of too many clubs competing for a declining player pool, which weakens the strength of competing teams.

My tuppence worth is that until we get amalgamation of clubs - especially in the Eastern Bay and Rotorua - things won't change. Maybe a compromise would be to separate Western Bay and Rotorua and Eastern Bay of Plenty combined competitions in the first half of the season. Then the four teams from the two competitions would enter a full round of Baywide premier and division one playoffs.

The other big gripe from the other two regions is that the finals day that attracts three or four thousand spectators has become an exclusive Western Bay fixture. The answer to that is to rotate finals day between the three major centres on an annual basis.