AT THE END OF THE DAY | Joining forces best way to Ram-p things up

And so the delay of a proposed Western Rams combined competition - uniting old rivals from Group 10 and Group 11 - is the right call.

Good things come to those who wait, or so the saying goes.

The delay will mean NSWRL officials and both Group 10 and Group 11 boards, and clubs, have the chance to mull over and agree upon the ideal competition for all participants, not a rushed post-COVID idea where some clubs bit the dust for seemingly no other reason than their population was much less than other towns.

Population, as we've seen time and time again in these parts, doesn't guarantee success.

If it did, both Group competitions would have bitten the dust long before now.

And so when both Groups amalgamate and the Western league comes to fruition - maybe in 2022, but maybe later, too - giving our region's smaller clubs the chance to rise up and compete against franchises based in Orange, Bathurst and now Dubbo, will be the making of the competition.

Blayney, Nyngan, Narromine, Lithgow, Cowra - towns like these are success starved, to a degree. But they're centres that will ensure the competition thrives.

How many times do you hear clubs say 'when Mudgee's strong, Group 10 is strong'. Rugby league lovers in Cowra will say the same thing about the Magpies, not without a swooping reference of course.

It's the same in the west. Southern sides, Forbes and Parkes are both vastly smaller centres than Dubbo, but in the last decade the Spacemen or the Magpies, one or the other, invariably musters up a season where they knock off CYMS.

That David and Goliath story is what gives people hope. Wellington, too, Nyngan, nearly ... oh, so close in 2017.

The chance for rugby league to unite communities and give those impacted by the drought, those impacted now by COVID-19 and the how-ever-long-they-may-linger effects of the pandemic can't be underestimated.

Community sport in 2021 will be so important. And, for rugby league in these parts, time is the key.

The NSWRL's One State NSWRL Strategic Plan, as well as the running of the successful and popular Western Youth League played this season in the place of the cancelled Group 11 and Group 10 competitions, almost forced the hand of officials to make change for the next season.

Ensuring there wasn't is the first step in making the new competition a viable one.

All clubs have to be given a chance to shore-up their stocks to be ready for when the borders are blown up and Western becomes one.

Fifteen clubs, in pools (or conferences, if you're American sport inclined) and then an eight team finals series, it'll be footy like we've not seen before in Western.

And given the Rams region is such a fruitful one it's hard to imagine a scenario where the premiership race isn't a success.

So far the only negative people have floated is travel.

But surely facilitating a competition where the best players in Western, and more importantly the best juniors in Western, are exposed to more high level rugby league will swing even the doomiest of dooms-day-preppers - you know the ones, they're always banging on about rugby league dying in the bush.

It's not, we've been down this road before. Bush footy's just changing.

And it's indicative of the resilience of rural communities that clubs and competitions continually evolve with the game too.

The communication of this idea has been poor - NSWRL dropped the ball releasing the One State plan and then leaving the ambiguity to fester.

Who was in? Who was out? Will we or won't we?

Given the COVID situation we're all in, danging that uncertainty carrot and then leaving it for a month with little to no confirmation was poor.

But we're here now, and a merge looks inevitable.

Only thing is now, it'll be an amalgamation clubs in the region will get a say on. One they'll be able to adapt to. One they'll inevitably be able to thrive in.

And isn't that the point?

Everyone on Wednesday night will be glued to their TV as the Blues run out against Queensland in Sydney in a bid to level the State of Origin series.

Jack Wighton and Isaah Yeo will both represent NSW in their bid to go 1-all with Queensland.

They're two of this region's finest exports, and the chance to ensure more juniors progress through the grades and are given the best possible chance to walk that same path into a Blues jersey has to be the goal, doesn't it?

No one can say combing Western, pitting the best clubs, fed by one of the best junior nurseries in NSW, against one and other won't be the best thing for the game in our region.