Auckland's league clubs have accepted the Sparc plan to break chunks off the powerful ARL's geographical coverage by creation of Counties-Manukau and Northland zones, allowing the New Zealand governing body to progress its deal for financial backing from the government agency.
The long-standing Fox Memorial and other gradedcompetition formats will not change.
Below that, the two new zones will be expected to progress their own fortunes but in a reversal of the way the Sparc scheme will operate throughout the rest of the country, the zones will still report to the ARL.
"We're hoping to make more use of local sports trusts and councils," said ARL chairman Cameron McGregor. "We still want to have the same standards apply across the whole of Auckland."
The ARL had a solid administration in place, was financially viable and was already running many of the systems proposed by Sparc, McGregor said.
There are 200 teams in Central and South Auckland. There is opportunity to expand from the 160 in Counties-Manukau and even more so on the Shore where there are just 46 registered teams and the ARL hopes to spread development into Northland too. There is intention to create stronger links between clubs and schools because participation by schools has halved in recent years.
The loss of former Kiwi Sam Panapa as development officer will hurt. He is shifting to Brisbane to work with Polynesian players.
McGregor said the ARL would wait and follow the Sparc model of development programme rather than appointing an immediate replacement.
