The Astley Cup's long-standing points system will undergo a major overhaul in 2024.
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But it's only a temporary one ... for now.
For the next two years the Astley Cup will trial a new points system, where two points is awarded for a win, one for a draw and zero for a loss.
That's a change from the system that's been in place for decades, where points are calculated at a percentage of 100, based on the score in a sport.
Bathurst High Campus principal Ken Barwick said he pushed for the new points system and is excited to see how it will go over the next two years.
"We're looking to have a fairer points system, that makes sense to the community and to the kids, where one sport is not impacting significantly on another sport," he said.
"Everyone's sport has its own unique scoring system, but if you do it in a ratio of 100 points, it can't be fair.
"A 3-1 win in soccer is completely different and has a huge gap [75-25], compared to a 51-50 win in basketball [50-50], where winning the sport meant nothing.
"I was behind the push to change the scoring system to try and make it understandable and fair."
Mr Barwick said a letter was sent to students, parents and community members detailing the new points system.
It shouldn't matter 'how much you lose by'
The changes have been agreed upon by all three schools - the others being Orange High School and Dubbo College.
The trial points system will mean that a team will basically need to win the most amount of sports to win a round.
While it is rare, a team could win an Astley Cup round having won less sports than another and that actually happened last year.
Bathurst won four sports, lost three and drew another in its round against Orange, but heavy defeats in athletics and hockey meant Orange claimed a 405-393 win.
Under the new points system, Bathurst would've won 9-7 and would've won the Astley Cup, in the competition's 100th edition.
"There's a lot of traditionalists out there that say, 'Let's leave it as it is'," Mr Barwick said.
"But it should be if you've lost a game of rugby league, you've lost the game of rugby league.
"It shouldn't matter how much you lost by at the end of the day."
Open to expansion
For the 2024 season, the Astley Cup schedule will once again consist of athletics, basketball, football (boys and girls), hockey, netball, rugby league and tennis.
The schedule grew to eight events in 1986 with the introduction of boys football and softball, with the latter ultimately replaced by girls football in 2005.
But there were rumours circling late last year that hockey might be dropped, with Dubbo having struggled in the sport for years.
Hockey - one of the competition's founding sports - will remain for the next two years at least, but Mr Barwick said he's keen to bring more sports into the Astley Cup, expanding it up to 10 sports or more.
"I'm a firm believer that we need to grow the Astley Cup," he said.
"Some of the sports that have been put on the agenda to think about and trial is girls basketball, girls rugby league, AFL and swimming.
"There will be a survey coming to the community about what sports and what we should investigate for the future.
"At this point, we're not looking to eliminate sports."
The 2024 schedule
The schedule for the 2024 Astley Cup has already been confirmed.
Bathurst will host a presentation on Tuesday, June 4, where the teams are announced, before the first round on June 13-14, where Orange will host Bathurst.
There will be no Astley Cup the following week, with a major NSW Combined High School netball competition being hosted in the region.
Dubbo will then host Orange on June 27-28, before Bathurst hosts Dubbo in the final round on July 3-4.
