Uncategorized Archives - Page 2 of 5 - Merewether Carlton Rugby Club

Welcome to our Northern Hemisphere Players

Posted on June 14, 2019June 14, 2019 by Merewether.6523

You may notice a few unfamiliar accents around the Greens this year as we welcome four players from the Northern Hemisphere here to experience Southern Hemisphere Rugby and everything Newcastle has to offer.

We welcome (pictured left to right) Dave Whiting and Charlie Brown both props from England, Killian Sarre-Molines a versatile back rower from France, and Spencer Cooper a prop from Canada. All great guys and have settled straight into the greens way of life.

Merewether has been home for a few journeymen over the past few years which as created strong and life bonding friendships. It is something that the club sees as an important part of our rugby culture, creating pathways for our local players to travel abroad and providing great experience in our great suburb from players abroad (as well as adding strength to our playing roster).

It takes a whole community to ensure that these guys feel welcome and a lot of work goes into helping them find their feet with restricted visas and often as a gap year after studying. So if you see the boys around the green room buy them a beer and have a chat! If you think you can help out with providing employment opportunities, make a mean lasagne or have a spare car in the garage (seriously) then get in touch with the coaches or committee and we will make it happen. Let’s make sure these boys are all spruiking the green experience when they head back to their respective homes. Welcome boys and good luck for the season!

Greenies Grommets Stronger Than Ever

Posted on June 14, 2019 by Merewether.6523

We have just finished term 1 of our 3rd consecutive year of Greenies Grommets and again it has been an incredible success and is continuing to grow at a rapid rate. Having started the program in 2017 with 45 registered, we kick started the program this season with 93 registered grommets and by the end of Term 1, the first 5 weeks we had over 112 registered greenies. We have been blessed with huge support not only from the parents, but current senior players and sponsors who give their time every Saturday morning to help make this special event run smoothly.

Similar to last year, we have split the program into 2 x 5 week blocks to coincide with school terms and we have found this works well with family commitments and takes the pressure off the little ones. As our grommets continue to grow and develop we have been able to branch out and introduce more age specific, skill based games and interaction.

We are still open for registrations and Term 2 will commence on the 27th July 2019 and finishing on the 24th August 2019, to coincide with the junior semi-finals.

We have had another wonderful sponsor in GoKindy join PRD and come on board, meaning we can give more gear back to the grommets while keeping the cost down for parents. Most importantly, rugby is back and we couldn’t be more excited for what lies ahead this year.

Recently our grommets enjoyed a Saturday morning session at Townson Oval and a fantastic time was had by all. We got some great photos including one of the grommets and their parents sitting in the Clarke Stand in front of the new Green Room.

Our Juniors – The Season So Far

Posted on May 23, 2019May 23, 2019 by Merewether.6523

Our Junior teams are off to an amazing start for the year and are making everyone extremely proud. Here is a recap of how each team is going….

Under 8’s
Our Under 8’s are having a cracking season so far and are learning to tackle like champions. We have lots of familiar faces returning from last year and plenty of new faces including Spencer our Canadian import who is the fastest of all girls (and beats the boys too) in the U8 comp, Josh who has come to us with South African heritage, Gus who runs over the top of everyone and Eli who has never played in his life but is happy to line up the biggest kid in the opposition just to name a few. We are fortunate enough to have 1st grade coach Jode Roach at the helm and he is so happy with us I think we will be picked for 1st grade in no time!

Under 9’s
Our mighty U9s are so far undefeated this season. We have welcomed lots of new players/families to our team this season – some new to rugby and some with a few year experience. The boys are now learning the positions, cleaning out, tackling harder and finally starting to pass! The challenge this season will be developing structure in our play. Coach Andrew Beattie and Assistant Coach Anthony Fisher are utilising the tree-run often in training and never-ending bull-rush is always a winner. The boys are embracing being part of the greens community, sticking around for the older games and I think we have a very bright future for many years ahead. Just for the record our last game was a 135-20 win, not bad boys!

Under 10’s
The Under 10’s are enjoying the step up to playing on a full length field, 12 a side with allocated positions and roles, and no on field coaching.

Our experienced players are leading the way and the new players we have welcomed are learning impressively fast. We are currently undefeated, at the top of the table, with a for and against of +227.

The boys are also enjoying the new challenge of kicking conversions, with a long line up pushing and shoving for a chance when the try is scored under the posts, and everyone racing to be first back to the half way line when they are scored out wide.

Under 11’s – Green and White teams
With pretty much all of the 2018 team returning for another year of rugby and the addition of some new faces to the group we had just enough numbers for 2 teams which has been great as it has resulted in more game time for the kids this year and less stress for Prycey having to orchestrate his spreadsheets working the interchanges for 8 reserves!

Having 2 teams required more hands on deck for coaching with Paul Hughes & Andrew Pryce taking the reins for the Green Team and Brodie Hussain, Tristen Hough & Brad Drelincourt steering the ship for the White Team.

With 2 ‘Greens’ teams entered in this years competition they played against each other for the first time recently and you could feel the tension not amongst the players but more the coaches! In a well contested match played in great spirit the White team clawed their way back from being down by 2 tries at half time to win 24-21.

At time of printing our teams sit 2nd & 3rd on the ladder which is a great reward for all the work they have put in with Maitland once again the team to beat.

Under 13’s
This year the U13’s have had a lot of familiar faces back for another season with the Greens and a couple of new players who have joined the team. We have also welcomed new Coaches from our Seniors P1 team Eli McCulloch and Lachlan Miller and a new trainer Raoul Fong. The extensive experience and knowledge that Eli and Lachie bring to the team will help the boys to further develop their skills, teamwork and attitude. Evan Steverson has continued for another year as Team Manager which means that the quality of the jokes at training are not expected to improve any time soon.

The season ahead has its usual challenges against the perennial competition front runners Nelson Bay and Singleton as well as a resurgent Wanderers team who have recruited some extra players from other teams. We have lost two clubs from last year’s comp (Medowie and Pokolbin) which leaves us with 8 teams (yay no byes) and which means that every team plays each other twice (yay again).

We may get knocked down a bit this year but we will get up again…every…single…time…

Under 14’s
The U14’s finished last season as joint premiers in the Grand Final – in 2019 we are hoping to go one better. The U14 competition is a close 5-team comp and the Greens are so far right up there in the mix. We have a relatively small squad and have welcomed some new players this season combining with our existing players, U14’s proudly have 5 rep players. Our fitness is unmatched in our grade and our never give up attitude has been a weapon in our games this year, especially in our Round 1 29-28 win against Lake Mac where our boys fought until the end and got the win. Coach Matt Jackson and Assistant Coach Bryan Wilson are drilling the boys with new skills and knowledge each week at training. Our back line is fast and they are scoring tries off set-plays while our forwards are working together well and always their for each other. Our U14’s definitely bleed green!

Under 16s
The U16’s have had a very good start to the year winning the first 4 out of 5 games, including the last 4 games in a row. We are now sitting in 2nd place, one point behind 2018 premiers Nelson Bay.

Given that we finished 5th last season, the boys have really stepped up this year, winning a couple of close games against, often bigger, opposition. Under the astute coaching of 1st Graders Jay Strachan and Billy Dunn, the boys have developed their playing structure and are combining really well as a team with all the boys contributing each week.

Congratulations to Tom Jackson, Josh Nadalin and Wil Cromarty who made the Newcastle representative team. Wil Cromarty played exceptionally well for Newcastle and has been selected to play for Country. Great effort boys.

Under 18s
As the colt’s competition didn’t go ahead this season the NHRU made the decision that the U18s competition would fill that void by playing before the senior grade teams each week. A great opportunity for the boys but this meant they would not play any games at Gibbs with the junior teams.

The 18’s are undefeated with 4 wins from 4 games along with a bye. Our squad has been hampered by injuries and player availability but to the teams credit they have displayed great spirit along with a will to win.

Our first game was against Nelson Bay at Strong Oval. We had 17 players for the match and headed up to Strong Oval not knowing what would unfold. The first half saw a see sawing match with the score line changing numerous times. Just before half time our half back injured his shoulder which was later confirmed as a broken collarbone therefore playing no further part in the match and out for the season. Nelson Bay had 8 reserves on the bench and we now only had 1 and we were up against it along with a breakaway now filling in as halfback. The second half produced some special moments from our team and when the full-time whistle blew we were in front on the scoreboard 39-36. A sensational team effort with the B&F points going to Ben Hodgson 3, Jack Piper 2 and Angus McBean 1.

Round 2 saw us head up to Maitland. The fact we were at Maitland was a godsend as the majority of the team was heading to Groove in the Moo. As we prepared for the game and the change room resembling some sort of outback cocktail bar trying to get the boys focused was an effort in itself. For the second week in a row we had a squad of 17 players and needed to get the teams mind on the job.Enter the team’s dictator Goggs conducting a very strict warm up having our team focused on only one thing that was bringing home the bacon. With not much going our way the boys dug deep and somehow we won 31-25. After the game the outback cocktail bar had drinks flowing with the coach thinking he was the main act at Groovin. B&F points going to Matt Baggs 3, Mitch Robinson 2 and Hudson Price 1.

Round 3 had us heading to Disneyland up against Lake Macquarie. Not knowing what Lake Mac had to offer the team trained as though they would win easily which reflected the way they played. In a scrappy affair we won 14-10 but the performance was not pretty. Yes the team got the points but they did not stick to the game plan and if it wasn’t for some individual brilliance we would have lost.B&F points Matt Baggs 3, Heath Goodwin 2 and Lachlan Frith 1.

A great start to the year but we are nowhere near the way we want to be playing. With a number of players returning from injury along with playing to our coach’s game plan the team can only get better.

The team as had some players be selected and play in representative teams.
Matt Baggs has just returned from a tour of South Africa representing CHS NSW side and finishing the tour undefeated.

Also Matt and Josh Fisher played for Hunter Wildfires open boys last weekend winning the country championships against Illawarra 21-7.

Greenies Grommets Kicks Off It’s Third Year

Posted on May 10, 2019May 10, 2019 by Merewether.6523

Last Saturday marked the first day of Greenies Grommets for 2019. We are proud to be in our third consecutive year with 98 registered grommets and two great sponsors – PRD Nationwide and GoKindy.

Grommets is a fantastic program where young boys and girls ranging from 2 – 7 years of age learn the basic fundamentals of rugby through fun ball games and activities as well as learning how to interact with other children in a fun family environment.

It’s great to see Merewether locals who have not necessarily been part of the club before come down and get involved. Equally it’s fantastic to see former greens players bring their children down to become part of the strong community spirit that the Greens offers.

The Grommets are lucky to have involvement from the likes of Merewether Carlton Seniors legends Jayson Strachan, Billy Dunn, Chicky Sykiotis and Dylan Smouha leading the way.

Similar to last year, we will split the program into 2 x 5 week blocks to coincide with school terms. Blocks will be:
Term 1 4/05/2019 to 1/06/2019
Term 2 27/07/2019 to 24/08/2019

One registration will cover grommets for both 5 week blocks and there will be no additional costs for Term 2. All grommets receive a jersey, shorts and a water bottle.

From Flatmates to Rugby Rivals

Posted on May 10, 2019May 24, 2019 by Merewether.6523

This week Coach Jode Roach, and new Singleton Bulls Coach Tim Partridge go head-to-head as coaching rivals for the first time.

Former flatmates, great mates and both former greens players, these rugby obsessed individuals have spent many hours dissecting the game over a beer or thirty, but this is the first time they’ve had to go into battle. We caught up with these ~~clowns~~ intrepid leaders…..

ROACH ON PARTO

Roach – How was Parto as a flatmate? Any funny stories?
He was great, he was my second favourite after Ecca when the three of us lived together. Bit of a loud chewer but otherwise he “brought” or was it “bought” plenty to the table.

Tim was in charge of entertainment! Once he rang me and couldn’t believe his luck – a thrifty truck had pulled up at his work site with some cut price sound systems “Roachy it’s legit, they are from an electrical supplier in Western Sydney and have an actual ABN and it was their last one!” I asked for 2 minutes and I’d call him back but when I rang back and before I could tell him that the ABN didn’t exist he was proudly describing the $5000 Telefunken Home entertainment system, “apparently the leaders in german ingenuity” he had brought/bought for $1000.

You should have seen this thing it consisted of 6x 5ft Speakers, dozens of smaller speakers, a sub woofer and an impressive 8 stack system complete with double cassette deck. It was a spectical! Unfortunately wasn’t until all 28 items were in place that we realised there were no cords, plugs, instructions. It never worked but it made an impressive loungeroom that any german techno raver would have died for. Part of Tim’s Entertainment Role was also picking movies. Tim’s a huge movie buff and we would spend hours together on the lounge watching movies. Some memorable ones were Lorenzo’s oil, Honey I Shrunk The Kids, The Notebook and his favourite “We Brought A Zoo”.

What’s Tim’s most interesting quality?
His story telling! He loves a yarn. Tim is the only guy I know who can take 15 minutes to tell a knock knock joke. I’m sure he has the younger generation of Bulls in raptures with his sidesplitting arsenal of jokes and tales.

How do you think the Greens will stack up against the Bulls this weekend?
We never underestimate the Bulls, so whilst we will be hoping to take home the points we are expecting a big challenge. Tim adds an element of surprise to this team as he injects some new ideas. Tim likes to think outside the box so we can expect to see some of his signature moves over the weekend. His trademark being the 4 cut – 8 slice orange deconstruction. No one ever sees that coming.

Who is the bigger rugby fanatic, you or Parto?
I’d have to say Tim. Not only do his rugby stories go for hours longer than mine, he is brother to Anthony Partridge who is probably the biggest rugby tragic I know. Whilst Tim had a talent for the clarinet and linguistics in his younger years it paled in comparison to the rugby prowess of his more talented twin Anthony. Tim’s life become Anthony’s rugby! It was all he knew and it was all he wanted to know as impressing his slightly younger, more likeable and definitely unidentical twin, still to this day, was a priority to Tim.

Tim is a great mate and is as much a part of our club as he is Singleton. I’ll enjoy trading blows, beers and “yarns” with him come Saturday. I’ll have the spare bed made up just in case Tim wants to stay down for old times sake!

PARTO ON ROACH

Parto – Who is the bigger rugby fanatic, you or Roach?
I would say this would be an equal measure. Roach has two teams the Wallabies and Wales on the international stage, and we are equally passionate about local rugby. Both of us having sons, has just secured another 20 odd years of involvement this has both our respective partners overjoyed.

Parto – How was Roach as a flatmate? Many parties?
One or two….we were probably not the best of influences on one another, we both have some serious issues and being the social butterflies we made sure Tye Burford didn’t struggle financially when he purchased the Burwood off Barry. Monk (another great influence) was a regular at home and will have you believe we showered together to Elton John music. There is some truth to the story, on a Presidents Luncheon Monky walked in as Jode was leaving the bathroom and I was entering, the door was wide open and Elton was on, like refereeing it’s all about interpretation.

Parto – What’s Roachy’s most interesting quality?
Exam results would suggest he’s intelligent. But like most geniuses, struggles with the simple things, and has serious OCD. There are many but I will keep it brief:

He can’t use high beams on his vehicle and drives only with low beams, complaining about the difficulty of seeing.
He always talks on the phone with one hand down the front of his pants, right down there.
Has 45 min showers
Cannot bear to hear people chew or be in a room with others eating if he’s not
Is the only rugby bloke I know who pirouettes
He’s emotional, one of my favourites is the time he was at an airport and he watched a family saying goodbye to one another and found himself a sobbing mess.
He cannot stand poor pronunciation (don’t use Bought and Brought in the wrong way)
He’s actually a very good cook and if he invites you for dinner, make sure you go. He cooks like Heston Blumethal, but has an annoying trait of critiquing his food like a Matt Preston.
Has serious FOMO issues (did I say serious)

On a serious note, he’s one of the most caring people I know and would do anything for anyone, but don’t be fooled by his kind heartedness. He has a heart of a lion, and would be my first picked if I needed someone in my corner.

Parto – tell us about your season so far as a new 1st Grade coach? Are you enjoying it?
I’m really enjoying the new challenge, the Bulls have struggled for a long while and there is value in that, it has given them desire and want.

My role is the forward coach – from a forwards point of view my instruction from Steve was fix our set piece, we worked hard on our scrum in our pre-season at the expense of our lineout, and in our Hamilton game, the boys chose scrum over lineout.

Since then we have put time into lineout, and as a unit are happy with its progress, it’s still developing but its improved to a point that has Steve happy. Wanderers exposed us defensively and we have put attention into that, holding Uni the following week try-less was a big booster for the team, Uni put 33 points on Lake Mac in previous weeks.

So we will work progressively on our game and be happy with small improvements each week, as they say its a long season.

And I’m used to difficult circumstances, I’ve experienced these difficulties before, haven’t I Nick Sickiotus (great game last week!) Clancy comes to mind, Flynne you just popped in.

Parto – Congrats on your win last week. How do you think the Bulls will go this week against the Greens?
Thanks, it’s a good feeling getting a win out of the way. There is a good feeling in the team and it was just what we needed after mixed fortunes in the opening rounds. We have some new faces who are getting a look at the NHRU for the first time, it’s looking like a very even comp and will be a grind for all teams. The new boys are settling into the Hunter valley lifestyle and are great blokes.

I will be happy if we achieve what we train, and continue to improve.

Our boys have viewed some of Carltons games as they are rugby-mad Kiwis, they were very impressed with how they just keep coming, the tenaciousness never-say-die efforts stood out for them, they know it will be a hard game. Our guys are doing enough to keep improving without being at the point of expectation.

I will tell you how we went in the Green room at 5.30.