The constant comments about having 3rd grade across all Zone grades is complete nonsense IMO

About the only thing I'm 100% on board with in terms of organisation of the competitions is the fact that ZL2 & ZL3 are essentially "starters" to a higher grade of competition, and can be a great stepping stone for smaller clubs to show they can compete with the big name/big money clubs on talent. By the time you work your way to being at the top of ZL2 and pushing for promotion you should have had the opportunity to grow and promote the league within your club and Junior grades so you can gain the numbers to field a 3rd grade team in ZL1. This is how the entire ZL competitions are supposed to be structured and how they are meant to be about growing clubs and Junior ranks to provide more opportunities for juniors to compete at a higher level.
The point where we've lost our way as an entire ZL competition over the past 5 or so years is this "we want to field a 3rd grade side so we'll poach players from other clubs and offer them whatever to come across" bullshite.
It ruins some clubs sides, and really highlights those clubs who aren't running their ZL sides from the committee but letting others take over the organisation.

The combined zone committee (yes it's run by a committee of all 3 zones, not Russell himself), needs to start providing more tools and resources to sides within the lower ZL to help them put the right conditions and pathways in place to grow their clubs from youth up, so that these clubs have the strength and numbers to be able to compete in the higher portion of the competitions, and further up if they ever decide to. As our Associations, this is meant to be their job, but sometimes it seems like there is still too much focus on the "power" clubs and pathways within each area.