This is going to be lengthy so buckle up!
In this case it's more that a few chickens are coming home to roost with Marist. There seems to be a lot of resentment around the DoF being brought in from overseas on a full-time salary when lower down the club they feed off scraps.
Very aggressive in headhunting from other clubs in the past, as well as having by far the largest number of teams and players in the region, they're not very well liked by everyone else. Combine that with the Director of Football deciding to clean house and tell a bunch of players and coaches they are not needed and it's a recipe for disaster. Bit of a closed shop in their 1st team so it's known that pathways are almost non-existent so it's not super attractive to join them lower down the grades.
Their women's section is fucked. Lost a bunch of 1st team players to PNU, overseas, and just left the game. Their Reserves were supposed to be part of the new Fed League, but they must have realised they would be uncompetitive so they pulled out. Then they were part of the Manawatu Championship but couldn't get through preseason friendlies without social grade players, and basically disbanded their Reserve team.
On the men's side, they got rid of their Reserves and third team coaches, and all 99% of the players went with those blokes to Takaro. Takaro's reserve team in the Manawatu Champs is basically last years Marist Reserves team from Western Prems. A couple of social grade teams have also switched over to Takaro. Marist have gone from having teams in every division, with multiple teams in most of the social grades, to not even having teams in the Champs and Div 2. Current Reserve team in the Prems are basically a bunch of schoolkids from their academy, which has been overtaken by PNU.
Takaro have overtaken them now, and Feilding are very close behind them in terms of numbers.
In this case it's more that a few chickens are coming home to roost with Marist. There seems to be a lot of resentment around the DoF being brought in from overseas on a full-time salary when lower down the club they feed off scraps.
Very aggressive in headhunting from other clubs in the past, as well as having by far the largest number of teams and players in the region, they're not very well liked by everyone else. Combine that with the Director of Football deciding to clean house and tell a bunch of players and coaches they are not needed and it's a recipe for disaster. Bit of a closed shop in their 1st team so it's known that pathways are almost non-existent so it's not super attractive to join them lower down the grades.
Their women's section is fucked. Lost a bunch of 1st team players to PNU, overseas, and just left the game. Their Reserves were supposed to be part of the new Fed League, but they must have realised they would be uncompetitive so they pulled out. Then they were part of the Manawatu Championship but couldn't get through preseason friendlies without social grade players, and basically disbanded their Reserve team.
On the men's side, they got rid of their Reserves and third team coaches, and all 99% of the players went with those blokes to Takaro. Takaro's reserve team in the Manawatu Champs is basically last years Marist Reserves team from Western Prems. A couple of social grade teams have also switched over to Takaro. Marist have gone from having teams in every division, with multiple teams in most of the social grades, to not even having teams in the Champs and Div 2. Current Reserve team in the Prems are basically a bunch of schoolkids from their academy, which has been overtaken by PNU.
Takaro have overtaken them now, and Feilding are very close behind them in terms of numbers.