Sports correspondent & historian with Sideline Sid

Thermal clothing and woolly hats will be the order of the day on Bay of Plenty rugby finals day on Saturday, which will end a club season that kicked off in the balmy days of mid April.

The two top qualifiers in the Baywide Premier preliminary competitions, Te Puke Sports and Greerton Marist, will square off at Murray Salt Stadium in Te Puke.

Te Puke Sports are no stranger to Baywide silverware, having won back-to-back Premier crowns in 2011 and 2012 and adding their third title in 2018.

Greerton Marist are in uncharted territory, having never captured the big prize. 

The two other club rugby titles to be contested on Saturday will be fought out at Blake Park. Mount Maunganui will host Te Puna in the Baywide Colts/Under-85kg title decider and Greerton Marist will take on the home side in the Western Bay of Plenty sub-union championship.

The end of Western Bay of Plenty club rugby, which stretches back to the start of the 20th century, seems like a good time to drill down into the state and health of local club rugby.

Mount Maunganui, Tauranga Sports, Te Puna, Greerton Marist and Te Puke Sports all field sides in the Baywide Premier, Baywide Colts/U85kg and Western Bay local rugby competitions.

It is no coincidence that the multi-team clubs occupy the top spots in the top echelon of the Baywide competition. While there is plenty of energy necessary to maintain three teams during the season, the club pathways provide cover when injuries take their toll in the depths of winter.

It is worth noting the rise of Colts rugby since Under-85kg open-age players were added to the Colts competition. Colts rugby almost died, when a Baywide development competition was added to the Bay of Plenty rugby calendar a decade ago.

There is no better example of the success of the combined age-group and weight restriction concept than Pāpāmoa.

The Pāpāmoa club can be well pleased in adding an age-group side, complemented with players restricted to a weight limit, to their local rugby competition side this season.

The debutants were a team to be reckoned with and posted five wins in the preliminary games, before qualifying in fourth place to contest the playoffs.

Western Bay sub-union rugby is a mix of development sides and standalone teams with some holding Baywide aspirations.

Standing on my soapbox, it is no coincidence that the five teams that field just a senior side are confined to play sub-union rugby. While they all have significant junior rugby nurseries, they lack the pathway resources to regularly field a Baywide team.

The regular consequence of the winner of the annual Baywide promotion series is relegation the following season.

The Western Bay teams that have genuine Baywide aspirations should look at the Pāpāmoa approach, where they are building their player base for possible future Baywide promotion.

Good luck to Te Puke Sports, Greerton Marist, Mount Maunganui and Te Puna, as they endeavour to emerge from the title deciders with Baywide silverware on Saturday.