NEXT season will mark the union of Group 10 and Group 11 first grade teams for the inaugural Western Premiership, but Linore Zamparini wants to see a longer standing rivalry remain too.
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While the retention of Group 10 versus Group 11 representative fixtures has not yet been discussed, Group 10 chairman Zamparini is eager to see them remain.
This season Group 10 made a clean sweep of all three games played against Group 11 - winning the under 18s, league tag and open fixtures in Lithgow.
It was the first time since 2018 that Group 10 had enjoyed Western region bragging rights in all three of those grades.
"It certainly is rare to pull off [a sweep], the guys and girls they had playing this year were just keen as and in first grade, the guys that played there were just committed to play that game, they wanted to play that game and it came off pretty good," Zamparini said.
"For sure we'd love the chance to defend those titles and you'd also think Group 11 would want to come back and change things, but hopefully we'll just keep going forward and we'll own it."
This season the Group 10 versus Group 11 fixtures were the only Western region representative clashes that went ahead.
In the past the format has seen a Western cluster approach with teams from Woodbridge Cup and Castlereagh-Barwon League taking part, while there have also been under 23s clashes.
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Just what format any future Western region representative carnival takes and what grades would be involved remains to be seen, but retaining under 18s, league tag and open clashes between Group 10 and Group 11 is something Zamparini sees as important.
"Group 10 versus Group 11, we haven't really discussed that to this point, but I think it is something that should be on the calendar because it's not just a club game - it's the best out of Group 10 and the best out of Group 11," he said.
"That goes right back to the 18s and the women as well.
"It's a great rivalry and the players look forward to it so they can get out and win - put our best against their best and try and get the bragging rights for the next 12 months."
The Group 10 league tag side has won eight consecutive Western titles, while this season was the first time the Group 10 under 18s had beaten Group 11 since 2018.
As for the opens fixture, Group 10 has defeated Group 11 on three consecutive occasions with this season's 20-6 triumph adding to the 22-14 win in 2019 and 40-28 success in 2018.
As a whole, Zamparini is just hopeful that 2022 bring with it a full season for players, club officials and supporters.
"Hopefully next year with the vaccination rates, we should get the year done and give pay back to all the fans and stay strong with all the players," he said.
"It is going to be a tough year for the clubs because sponsors have certainly done it hard, most of them have sponsors who are a licenced premise or a café or a restaurant and they're hurting big time at the moment.
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