Whilst the local surfers lament the nor’easter, it was a saving grace for the greens as they toiled away through the hot summer pre-season at Empire Park. The squads trained for several weeks in December last year earning their Christmas beers before returning for the preseason program in January.  Adam “Passy” Trypas has had them working tirelessly through the summer months aiming at having the whole club at peak fitness for round one. 

The club has seen excellent numbers with a great attitude at training. Our player retention from last year is excellent and we have seen an influx of players both locally and from as far as France wanting to be part of this campaign. The encouraging numbers boosted by an excellent turnout from colts, under 18’s & of course the girls leading the charge.

We are now well and truly into our Rugby Program following the “training camp” day at Gibbs on the 9th March where we had over 70 players attend. We were lucky enough to have everyone’s favourite Gill, “Brad“, up from Sydney to assist with the training. Brad is the current forwards coach for Australian School Boys and has extensive coaching experience at different levels in Sydney.  Rolling out the program for the third year we saw a vast improvement in cohesion and confidence in our players.  A huge shout out to the “old boys” for the spread, the strappers, trainers & physios who were on-hand all day and to Tony at the Burwood who fed and looked after the boys after a long day in the sun.

Our first trial was a bus trip to Bathurst last weekend where we were hosted by the Bathurst Bulldogs, the home club of the legendary Chris “Hollywood” Bennett. This was a great hit out for the boys and all who went enjoyed the country hospitality. Trent Considine who wasn’t on the bus took the opportunity to do a lap of the famous Mount Panorama track. He looked extremely comfortable behind the wheel of his dads Audi around the infamous bends.

This week we host Maitland in our last and only local trial in all grades at Gibbs. Having lost to Maitland in the 1st grade final last year, our guys will want to make their presence felt and we are expecting this to be a great hit out and a good benchmark for us to make final team selections going into round 1. We encourage supporters to come along!

As we approach our first game away against Southern Beaches on the 6th April we are confident in the ability and attitudes of the playing group to ensure a very successful season. Following the defeat in last years final, our expectation will be none less than a Grand Final and premiership in 1st Grade and given the depth of talent we will be pushing very hard to claim the Club Championship in what promises to be a very special season with the redevelopment of Townson Oval.

We have four away games straight before the inaugural match out of the refurbished Clark Stand and new Green Room against Singleton on the 11th of May. This is building to be an auspicious occasion with what we are hoping is an unprecedented crowd.

We are extremely excited about the season ahead and look forward to and appreciate your support in what builds to be a very special year in our club’s history!

Go the Greens!