Which year has had the strongest Shore 1st XV, my thoughts would be this years would have to be up there.
-Legs
In recent years it would be the 2022 side, narrowly beating Riverview, Scots and Newington, close games in which all three went down to the wire, however just losing to Kings at the dying moments and losing to the strong Joeys side of 2022.
Prior to Shore's rough patch in the 2nd half of the 2010's, the best team would be the 2012 team, which Newington won the comp that year and Shore lost by only 2 points (27-29) to them at Stanmore. The highlight video of that Shore team has got to be my favourite rugby highlight video of all time, hands down.
The 2009 team I believe ended up coming 2nd place, I'm pretty sure of that but cannot remember exactly, that was around the later years of the era when Shore was a prominent force in AAGPS Rugby, and success was something that was expected from them and not heavily celebrated, as it has been after Shore's 'rough patch', however good on their rugby program for turning it around, definitely something to celebrate.
Then you have the 2006 team that won the comp alongside Ignatius and Joeys in a three-way premiership, upsetting Kurtley Beale's Joeys team, which that game ended up making newspapers.
1908 is definitely top 3 Shore sides of all time. Although it was a long time ago, that team still gets discussed in the conversation 'what is the best Shore team'.
The 2024 team has definitely got a great chance to excel to become one of the greatest Shore teams in a very long time and be the best Shore team from the 21st century at least. Only time will tell. Looking forward to Saturday at the Swamp.