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Now, former NRL star Jeremy Lattimore is now coaching a junior team in the Sutherland Shire of Sydney. He, of course, played 182 games in the National Rugby League, and I thought we'd get him on the line for a quick chat. He's on the line right now. Hey, Jeremy. Hey, boys. How are you? Mate, very well. Good on you for speaking to David Riccio about all of this because it's very frustrating. If there's a little drop of rain, the councils are quick to close the grounds, and the ones who are suffering are the kids.
Yeah, so how it come about, I actually put something out on my Facebook and my Instagram yesterday. I got my knickers in a bit of a knot. My son actually started shedding a few tears yesterday morning when I told him the footy was off, and that was sort of what pushed me over the edge. Just real frustration, obviously, with the weather, and I touched on a few other things just to do with the non-competitive stuff, because my young boy's 11, but...
Yeah, it all sort of come to a head yesterday. Then Dave reached out and, mate, yeah, obviously I wasn't aware of the article you wrote a few weeks ago. But like you said, mate, we get a sprinkle of rain and they're calling it off. And I grew up in Port Macquarie. Mate, my best memory as a kid were playing in the rain. So I just...
I think we're creating, obviously there's a few things at play, but, you know, that's a bit of adversity for the kids to get out, get uncomfortable and play in the rain and play in your best moments. And especially at a time too, Jeremy, where we're trying to encourage kids to put down their screens and their devices to go out there and play footy with their mates and play junior sport. This just forces them back inside.
That's exactly right. You know, there's a problem with young kids and obesity and obviously you touch on technology and screen time. You know, there's no other choice. You know, that's probably the best thing about winter. My young bloke plays footy on a Saturday. My daughter plays league tag on a Sunday and my young fella, so at least get them out of the house for half a day on the days where there is poor weather.
Otherwise, you're scratching the paint off the walls trying to keep them occupied. Hey, Jeremy, it's Neil Breen here. Mate, have you been able to count out how many games they've missed? Because I've worked out – so my son plays school rugby league on a Friday. He's missed quite a few of those, but this rain's been weirdly coming on a Saturday. He's missed, I think, six of his last eight Saturday soccer games. Are you at sort of the same amount? It's a lot, right? It's a lot. Yeah.
I went back through. So since the 13th of March, we played four games and we missed four to rain. And then obviously the rest were public holidays or school holidays. I think we'd had two buys as well. Four games. So four games in about three and a half months. Is this the council's problem? I mean, the council's obviously looking out for the oval. But, Latsy, is it the council just closing them too early or is it the fact that the facilities aren't up to standard?
to cope with the conditions that we're getting at the moment.
So just to be upfront, right, so I spoke to a couple of the presidents from the local area, our guy, President Jordan Moylan. Apparently the state government have a role to play in it because down here in, and I know a few of you boys are from the Shire, but we're considered a flood zone. So, you know, they need to put the right drainage and get the right infrastructure in place so that obviously when there's a bit of water, you know, you know, Como Field,
It just floods. Cornell, I think, and Tarrant Point both are insufficient to be able to handle the rain. But we didn't get that much rain on Friday night. That's what I don't get. I get last week it was quite a heavy downpour, but this week... And again, I don't quote you on this, I'm not Tim Bailey, but it said 8mm on my phone app, so I'm sure...
we should be able to handle 8 mil of rain on the local fields. Well, you'd also think that the council, Latsy, would be closing them because obviously if they do allow you to play, then there's a huge repair bill off the back of that. Is that one of the reasons you'd think?
You'd think so. You know, we pay fees for both insurance and council costs, right? So surely that's factored into the registrations we play. And, mate, like, obviously last Saturday was caught off, but the sun shined through to, you know, Saturday morning yesterday at about 3 o'clock. So why don't we make up the games in the week? Because it's unfair on the children. They're the ones who are suffering and they don't get to go out and...
play the game that they love with their mates on the weekend. And like you said, it's not just rugby league. The other thing that really rubs me the wrong way with junior sport at the moment, and, Breeney, you touched on it before we came on air earlier today, is these elite academies that go along and sign kids up and parents are forced to pay thousands of dollars. It always seems like the academies are allowed to play their...
because they're on some of the synthetic fields and everything else. But the under-6s, the under-7s, the under-8s, they're the ones that get the phone call on a Friday night saying, sorry, no footy tomorrow. Well, Harry's soccer club is attached to various grounds in the eastern suburbs, including the synthetic field at Moorpark and the synthetic...
at Waverley right next to the cricket ground there at the top of Bondi Road. And the elite academy kids or whatever, they're playing on the synthetic ones. And my point to the club is I think you have to start spreading it around. You've got to start... How can the other kids get good if their teams are getting canned all the time? The other thing is, Jeremy, if I look at my son Harry, who's 10, he only weighs like...
30 kilos or something. They're not ripping these fields to pieces. They're not 115 kilo, you know, Penrith forward packs tearing the fields apart. You know what I mean? Just on, Harry. He's going to weigh a lot more after coming in here on Sunday. Yeah, I know, but it's because of you. Because of you. I'm going to help him, mate.
but I don't know if it's just isolated to our area because I know the Canterbury comp it's everywhere um found out no they apparently they've only um called one game off and um they made that up midweek uh the Narrabeen comp yesterday played um
The Parramatta comp apparently played. I know MacArthur didn't. But I got this reply on Instagram from someone in the Shire yesterday, but they went straight to the local mayor, Camillo and Speakman, who I think is our local rep in the government. And they just asked what's going on. And they blamed the Junior Rugby League
so there's a strategy in place to upgrade some of the fields with better drainings but I know the AFL fields down there in Tarrant Point and even Subbo they've got better and newer solid drainage so I know my young boy he played league last AFL last Sunday but my daughter didn't play league tag because the junior rugby league had called it off so I think there's a few things that
Two agendas. Jeremy, you can write this down as another mention to the breakfast show. I'm filling in for Ben Fordham over the next couple of weeks on the 2GB breakfast program. The over-the-top is nearly payday. Well, no, I'm being serious here for a second. I'm actually going to follow it up. I'll go to Mr Speakman's office. I'll go to the Carmelo, the mayor's office, and I'll find out what the real reason is here because, you know, it's all well and good for the government to come out here. You know, Anthony Albanese stands there with, you know, the Premier Chris Minns and the local Mayor Darcy Byrne who's, you know,
He's got more dummies than a local chemist. He spits the dummy left, right and centre. They've finally got $40 million for Leichhardt Oval. What about all the kids? There's no point upgrading Leichhardt Oval if you haven't got kids playing rugby league at a junior level to one day play for the West Tigers. So, Jeremy, leave it with me. I'll follow it up this week. Well done to you and David Riccio for putting together the story and I'll see if I can get some answers this week on 2GB Breakfast. Awesome. Thanks, boys.