A championship division, as well as a premiership for the second tier clubs ... how and where each of the 15 clubs currently running around in Group competitions fit into that new format is anyone's guess.

All we know is clubs will be consulted individually from now until June, when more details are released.

But what last month's announcement from NSWRL headquarters missed is the rest of the region.

Western is as vast an area as there is in NSW.

From Cobar to Lithgow and then from Cowra up to Mudgee and Dunedoo in the north, no other area Dave Trodden and his team at NSWRL manages is as big as Western.

Within those boundaries sits nearly 40 rugby league clubs.

Some big - some massive, in fact, with Dubbo CYMS fancying its chances against some of the bigger Sydney clubs in last year's President's Cup competition - while some are small.

Think Portland, think Cobar, think Kandos, think Cargo.

No one competition will be able to accommodate all, and certainly the new Western proposal is one aimed at shaking up the structure for those clubs currently at a Group level - those in Orange, Bathurst, Dubbo, Parkes, Forbes, Mudgee and the like. Our biggest western centres, if you will.

But what about the rest?

Is it worth looking at what the Castlereagh League is doing and seeing what could be done differently? What about the Woodbridge Cup? The Wallerawang Landscaping Cup, or the old mid-west premiership, is seemingly a revolving door for clubs in the east. Can something be done better there?

The truth is, running and maintaining a small town club is probably the hardest job in bush footy.

Players come and go when the work demands in those towns change, and with football becoming less and less of a priority for a new generation you can't take for granted people will stay in town just to lace up the boots.

There's 37 clubs in Western. In 2021, 15 of those will be running around in either Group 10 or Group 11, leaving 22 clubs playing in competitions that require a senior men's team and a league tag side - in Woodbridge Cup and Castlereagh League, a youth league side (often under 19s) is an option.

If NSWRL deems change a necessity in order to reinvigorate the game in the country, then surely altering competitions for small towns - what will effectively be a third tier under that championship and premiership system, is an option too.

As is always the case, geography throws up some pretty large hurdles in any scenario that involves change in Western, but for the sake of this let's throw everyone in the one competition and throw NSWRL the travel bill - any bus trip over 150km they'll cover anyway, right?

A third tier competition with 22 teams in it could be a real boon for rugby league in the region.

Think about it - Trundle has been the benchmark in Woodbridge Cup now for five years. The Castlereagh League is sprinkled with strong clubs - ex-NRL player Kyle Turner is lacing up the boots with his junior club Coonabarrabran in 2021 - and Oberon was just a few years ago strong enough to play in a Group 10 grand final.

The quality is there across the board at that level of our region - and bringing them all together to take part in a larger premiership is certainly an option worth considering.

Naturally, 22 teams would need to be split before joining for a finals series - American sports run with larger sized competitions and use conference systems to navigate the regular seasons.

Use that formula here.

Use four pools - two with five clubs and then two more with six (the regions with five clubs allows the possibility of some clubs returning, with Kandos only just last week confirming their inability to play in 2021).

North, south, east and west pools seems the obvious choice.

Teams play those in their pool once, and then a neighbouring pool as well, also once. Let's use Cobar as example. The Roosters can play Trangie, Trundle, Peak Hill and Condobolin in a western pool, then the west and mix with the south for another five week part of the season.

The north and east would combine at the same time.

It'll be a 10 regular season round competition, then into finals. In which case we can take the top two sides from each pool and run a top eight format, which runs over a month.

Run the draw on a biennial cycle - where by teams only travel to various locations once every two years.

All in all, the year runs for around 15 or 16 weeks, depending on general byes and the like.

The key for most of these small town competitions is keeping it interesting. Lot's say ensuring the seasons are shorter is a key component of achieving that goal.

What's more interesting, from a player point of view out of, say, Canowindra? Playing an 18 round season against the same teams twice? Or taking part in a wider competition, against teams from across the west, over 10 weeks, extended by a month if you go on to win it?

For this column, it's a no-brainer. But at this stage, a pipe dream.

Maybe NSWRL officials are thinking of different structures for the entire region. Maybe the focus has been exclusively on the top tiers of the sport. It seems that way.

But there's a vibrant, community level of the game that deserves some attention as well.

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