Annual Report
2003

Source: AGM 5th December 2003, edited

PRESIDENTS REPORT

Season 2004 provided not only our local highlights but was capped off with a wonderful Rugby World Cup, with many of our Rugby Community able to attend matches in Adelaide as well as interstate.

Old Collegians were awarded the West End Trophy recognizing the best Senior Club for the third year in a row. We can all be very proud of this overall award as it recognizes both levels of participation and levels of performance across the whole Club.

We fielded four Senior Men's teams and a Women's team making our Club the largest based on registered players.

The "Crocs" again showed their "True Colours" and were Premiers for the third consecutive time. Division IV also showed great determination and team spirit to reach the grand Final (it's amazing what can be achieved if the drinking is left until after the game).

Division 1 and 11 had a mixed year with some disruption caused by the Australian Rugby Shield. However, the talent and relative young age of our players should produce improved results for the next few seasons.

Our "Frocs" again trained well but did not always do themselves justice on the field. 1 am sure they will work on improving in 2004. Off the field our women players strongly supported club activities and drove many of our fundraising successes. Emma Curran co-ordinated a very popular and successful programme of social events which not only kept the bar busy but provided great interaction of our club community.

Our Juniors showed further strong development with success on the field and in having players selected in representative teams. The involvement of our junior players and parents with the senior players and supporters can only be good for overall club strength and growth.

Volunteers have been recognized as critical to our game's future and cost structure, and while we never have enough, we greatly appreciate the work done by our many volunteers. Kate Denley, Ken Waddell, Sue Thewlis, Mickey Finn, Anne Bradley, Murray Curran, Emma Curran and Kim Evans, are just a few representing this outstanding group.

Our sponsors also play a crucial role in keeping the Club viable while providing rugby at an affordable cost for our players. We have received strong support from The Feathers Hotel, Onesteel and Mark Pickard and extend our thanks and appreciation for their much needed support.

Thank you to Curtis and his team of helpers for providing another major source of income - the Bar and thank you all for supporting it.

Finally, thank you to our Committee who carried out a range of tasks to provide rugby for our players and a viable club in which to enjoy each other's company.

In closing, special mention needs to be made of a few people for special reasons. Kim Evans for an outstanding contribution in producing our newsletter, at a special low cost, as well as being a Rugby Groupie at the World Cup. Kim's success in a competition enabled ten of our members to travel to Sydney for the all-important first semi-final.

Richard Waddicor is standing down, for the time being, as Registrar, an important role not only from an income point of view but also from a player data and recording perspective. Thank you Richard for a job well done.

Rob Sadler will be taking a break from coaching, hopefully not for too long. Rob has brought a level of innovation and structure to our club which has been enjoyed by the players and produced success on the field. Thank you Rob for a great effort.

As we look forward to 2004 with confidence and enthusiasm for continued success, I thank you all for your support and many contributions during the past season.


Ted Apted

Rugby Report 2003

For the 2003 rugby year, Old Cols fielded 4 men's teams and a women's team in the SARU Club Competition. This made Old Colls the largest of the SA Rugby Clubs.

Results were mixed, with our first and second grade teams ending up with the worst results in 30 years. Our thirds and fourth grade teams were spectacular in their success. Coaches and managers were found for all the teams, except the fourth grade team where the designated coach, changed his mind. Initially the fourths decided to coach themselves. As the season progressed this proved less than satisfactory and an arrangement was made for the coach of the women's team to assist and for the coaching of the women's team to be backed up with several injured senior players.

We would like to thank all the team officials for offering their services to the Club, without which the Club could not operate. 

At the start of the season, several issues developed with the coaches of the two senior teams. For the first grade team, the Coach took on a significant role with the State Team as the Assistant Coach and could not give the Club top priority to avoid problems that emerged during the ARS in 2002. As a result, the first grade team never really got started and by the time the ARS was finished and State duties were over, Division 1 was effectively out of the finals.

We are grateful to Rob for the extraordinary efforts and innovations that he brought to the coaching of this club which has included two premierships.

The Club was faced with the difficult task of finding an interim coach of the requisite ability to provide coaching cover while Rob was away on State duties. We were grateful to Terry Richards, a new member to the club from Northern NSW, for undertaking that task.

Equally in the second grade, the Coach went overseas during May and Andre Brummer stood in for him and then finished the season as his Assistant Coach. We are grateful for Andre stepping forward at this time of need. However the break created continuity difficulties for the seconds and they too failed to make the finals.

The third grade team as we know went from strength to strength and finished for the third year in a row with the third grade minor premiership and third grade Premiers. We congratulate them on their collective efforts.

Initially the fourth grade team struggled for numbers especially in key backline positions. However through the persuasive powers of Jessie, by the end of the season they had almost two teams worth of players to draw upon and the teams win/loss record had them second in the SARU Club Competition for the grade, a result which was repeated in the Grand Final.

While it is good that so many of our old and bold have willingly come back to the Club to play, it does mean that those that might normally step up into the coaching area are otherwise involved and no longer available. The club does have a shortage of people to undertake this part of the sport and we do need more offering in this area.

Finally we would like to acknowledge Kate Denley, and Michael Lowe and Bec Manson of Physio Direct who have tirelessly provided support to our players on Thursday nights and Saturday games. We really appreciate the effort put in for our players and we sincerely thank them.

Neil Bradley
Director of Rugby

Old Collegians RFC Women's XV

Report 2003

In 2003, the women's competition in South Australia, while aiming for 15 a side, ended up with about 75% of the games being played with 10, 11 or 12 players per team. The competition was again limited to four teams (Old Collegians, University, Southern Suburbs and the combined Port Adelaide/Woodville). The recent resurgence of interest in women's rugby, partially due to the RWC, could result in the resurrection of the women's teams from Burnside and Brighton in 2004 and may even see Port and Woodville splitting into two teams.

A number of the Frocs were selected to play for the SA Warriors in June, including Tiana Hume, Sally Renfrey, Lusia Raikiwasa, Liz Dean, Elysha Skipper, Kim Evans and Tara Naige. Unfortunately, neither Sally nor Liz were able to play, due to illness/injury.

The Frocs themselves had a `rebuilding year". There was generally very good attendance at training, and the Frocs' fitness by the end of the season was excellent. The 2003 squad consisted of 23 girls, although some were unavailable for much of the season. The Frocs consistently had better numbers than other teams in the competition, subject only to injury and other unavoidable absences. They welcomed new additions Tara, Kelly, Sally (ex-Bumside), Rachel, Naomi and Elysha. While not all of these girls remained for the whole season, it is hoped that the majority of them will continue with the Frocs in 2004. The squad was Trish Abbott, Susan Brooks, Candice Daniel, Bec "Bob" Derbyshire-Lloyd, Kim Evans, Liz Gabb, Imogen Hume, Kristie Hume, Tiana Hume (C), Bec Manson, Maxine Moran, Tara Niage, Amanda Nicholls, Bec Ogilvie, Kelly Ornell, Lusia Raikiwasa, Sally Renfrey, Kate Reynolds, Rachel Schilds, Belinda Wade, Naorni Woodstock, Zoe Woodstock and Elysha Skipper.

Significant injuries marred the early part of the season, with Lusia Raikiwasa injured in the initial trial match, Imogen Hume injured in the first game of the season (not to return until shortly before finals) and Sally Renfrey out for many weeks with a shoulder injury.

The Frocs remain dominant in line-outs and scrums, and they have seen a significant improvement in the back line in 2003, thanks to the work of Stewie Douglas. This has not, however, always shown in their results. Ultimately, the Frocs finished third on the ladder (of 4) after the minor round, only narrowly behind University. Unfortunately, they lost the knock-out semi-final to Woodville/Port Adelaide.

Thanks go to coaches Ray Butler, Stewie Douglas and Ryan "Boo Boo" Neilson, and to guest coaches James Bradley and Rob Sadler.

The Frocs are now thinking positively, recruiting more girls in 2004, consolidating the lessons learned in 2003 and anticipating a genuine improvement in their form and results in the next season.

24th November 2003

OLD COLLEGIANS RUGBY FOOTBALL CLUB REGISTRAR'S REPORT

Collections progressed steadily through the year.

Solid numbers through all the grades - especially the 4s.

"No Pay No Play" impact is falling away, new approach. Needed.

e-mail - 270+ members and associates now receive e-mail - email addresses that aren't maintained are, as always, an issue.

Change of contact details:- address or home, mobile phone contact etc - use the white box by the Noticeboard in the club or email the webmaster on the Old Colls site.

1 am stepping down from this role, time for a fresh face with new ideas and a new approach to the role.

A great way to get to know people throughout the whole club.

Lastly a special thanks to all those who paid regularly, on time and without being chased!!!

Regards Richard Waddicor

Registrar Old Collegians R.F.C. 2003

Junior Rugby Report

The Junior part of the Club fielded teams in all grades U8 to U16. The SAJRU failed to provide an U18 competition this year, so the players who would have been in that grade either played up into the seniors, played for their school and/or took up refereeing.

Rugby wise the year was successful with all teams eligible ( U12s, U14s and U16s) making it to the finals. Of those the U12s and U14s after hard played semis, made it to the grand final. Unfortunately both failed to win against very good teams. There are good prospects for next year when the plan is for the grades to rotate forward to become U9 to U17. In all there were 85 registered players with the highest number being in the U16 team. The total is slightly down on last year because of the failure of the U18 competition.

A change in the way the competition was organised this year had the U8 and U10s playing at the same grounds as the more senior teams. It proved to be highly successful and created a good club feel. Home games in these grades were refereed by our own members with James Bradley, Jesse James, Tiana Hume, Tristan Clements and Hugh Sheppard ably assisting.

Training was regularly undertaken on Wednesday night with good strong turnout throughout the year. Unfortunately this clashed with State Training for State Teams and unless we can get the State to change we may need to change to another night.

We are grateful to the dedication of the Team Coaches and Managers who came from senior club players, club members and parents. They are vital to keeping the juniors vibrant. We do need to increase numbers of parents and other interested parties in being involved in the junior club activities.

We had representatives from the club in all State teams.

A Social Committee was established under the chairmanship of Danny McCartan and a number of successful social get togethers for the parents were arranged along with a successful presentation day. The juniors will be joining the seniors at the Xmas function on the 18th of December.

Next year we are looking to increase our numbers in the lower grades. We have planning underway to create a schools based U8 competition from schools that traditionally contribute to this club. It would possibly run on Friday night. If we can get that off the ground, that will feed through into our U9s and hopefully once here they will stay with the Club.

We are proposing an amendment to the Club Constitution so that the junior side of the club can be recognised and operate within the Club. While juniors have been here for a long time, they have been operating without structure. It has been normal for one or two persons to undertake to organise things and this led to burnout. We thought it was time to change.

1 would like to acknowledge the efforts of Anne Bradley as the Junior Registrar keeping everyone up to the mark, acting as our conscience and applying pressure on me to improve my performance. It has been a good year.

Neil Bradley
Director of Junior Rugby

Old Collegians RFC
Tregenza Times

Report - 2003

Eight editions of 'Tregenza Times", the club's newsletter, were published between December 2002 and October 2003. The size of each edition varies depending on what is going on in that month, but is generally around 8 pages long.

Each edition follows the same format:
News - general rugby news
First grade - photos, results and match reports from James Diack
Second grade - photos, results and match reports (when available)
Crocs and Frocs - photos, results and match reports (when available) for the 3s, 4s and women
Juniors - photos, results and match reports (when available)
Scrum Bag - club gossip
Club Notes - notice board and announcements
Social - a diary of social events

In addition, the logos of the club's sponsors are displayed prominently. The cost of printing and mailing Tregenza Times is mostly paid for by a private sponsor.

Tregenza Times is now posted (in colour, by PDF) on the club's web-page, and distributed to nearly 300 email addresses. Hard copies in black & white are also left in the club, and it is also mailed to those who care to receive it that way. At the start of 2003, it was being mailed to approximately 180 recipients, Fewer than 20 responded to a request to let us know if Tregenza Times was still required by mail, and the mailing database was adjusted accordingly. While we suspect that in this culling process we have lost quite a few people who merely forgot to respond, the time and money saved is worthwhile. The process of collecting copy, editing, layout and proofing each edition of Tregenza Times takes as long as 20 hours. Posting the newsletter on the website and emailing is a relatively quick process, however photocopying, stapling, folding, stuffing envelopes, printing labels, affixing stamps, posting etc is a time consuming and unrewarding task! On estimate, each hard copy takes about 3 minutes more and costs about $2.00 more than the on-line version. By culling the database, we have effectively saved as much as $2,500 per annum. We have also saved the Poor Editor about 70 hours of work! Of course, if club members require hard copy versions to be mailed to them, then we will do so. However, we look to minimize the expense of time and money wherever possible!

Endless thanks go to:
- Paul Home for posting TT on the website, and for his other work on the website (from which Tregenza Times merrily and regularly plagiarizes)
- Bren Sinnott for his help with the technology!
- James Diack for his excellent First Grade match reports
- all other contributors, and particularly the managers of the Junior teams - Kristie Hume and all the other photographers
- everyone who helped with folding, stamping, stuffing of envelopes and mailing

NB:- the "Editor" is not an investigative journalist. You ask why your team has no match reports- Why your achievements go unproclaimed- Why your glories go unannounced- Because no-one wrote anything for the Editor! Club members are encouraged, urged and begged to write match reports, social tidbits or anything else for Tregenza Times.