Share what your Rugby Club does well?

I have been following G&G for a little under 12 months now. Second only to the overall love of rugby, the tribalism of club rugby is poisonous.

On threads where people are discussing how to fix club rugby, and there's many, it seems more about protecting the club's interest and not rugby's. Some of it goes so far as to become personal sledging of each other's clubs.

I'll support my club to the hilt and "defend thy honour" where necessary. But seriously folks if true lovers of the game on this site can't stop trying to tear each other down then what hope can we have for the self-interested at either St Leonards, Moore Park or Ballymore.

I would be really interested to hear what people think their club (Premier, Subbies, Country or Junior) does really well, that could benefit rugby across the country. From what makes your BBQ great to how you retain players, to how to attract sponsors.

People might feel that these are trade secrets.but they're not. Club culture will determine if a sponsor wants to be involved or how your match day is run.

Why do this you might ask? Because it's obvious to any who read this site, the people meeting here passionately love their rugby, love their clubs, and are the ones who can make things happen.

Brothers Juniors just won Club of the Year up here the second year in a row. Must be doing something right - but I think its all pretty grass roots stuff. Other clubs have better fields and better facilities etc. I think in the Juniors in Brisbane, particularly the young juniors from u6 to u12, Brothers has a great culture of fair, fun and friendly competition, respects the spirit of Rugby and has a lot of parental involvement as well as a very diligent Committee who put in above and beyond the call of duty. Our Sponsor relationships are great as well. My experience with other clubs - I think GPS Ashgrove looks like a very well run club, although perhaps a little over-competitive in the Juniors, Easts are great (friendly, helpful, good supporters), ditto for Manly. There is a BIG thing at Brothers to make sure supporters ALWAYS behave appropriately, at home and away. When a few isolated parents overstepped the mark they were pulled into line real hard, but very privately. Like the exception proved the rule I think. The Annual Casino Royale themed evening is a great fundraiser and has some real momentum in terms of costumes and groups going all out. Lot of fun. A willingness for parents to hang around after training for a little while and have a drink with other parents and let the kids bond with their mates is important too I think from a cultural point of view. A lot of friendships extend outside the club.

I think they could engage better with the local schools though and the QRU could probably be a great tour tool there. Last week of school semester, get a few Reds and Seniour Juniors to go round to the local schools and do a bit of a training session maybe - intro the club, promote the game. Ascot State School, Hendra State School, Eagle Junction, the Catholic one (;-) ) etc. Non-rugby State and Independent Junior Schools.

Just a few thoughts.

Good thread Rugby Central.

My club, Newcastle Uni, isnt as well financed as the other top clubs in our comp (A few people I know seem surprised a team attached to a Uni is short financially but there you go). Still, we got club of the year this year in our comp so there's a few things I think we do well - these ideas arent original & there's quite a few more but these come to mind right now.

"Bulk communication" - seems like a no brainer but there was a time not too long ago that we tended to use a fair bit of word-of-mouth to communicate social events, off-season training, pre-season training, AGM's, etc. It meant a lot of people didnt get informed. Email, facebook, webpages, etc have been around for a while but you'd be surprised how many clubs still dont use these tools enough. I've noticed the communication is much better since my club has been more into using them & that means more people are around for our clubs activities.

"Community involvement" - An e.g. would be my clubs support of breast cancer a few years back when we swapped our usual maroon & white jerseys for ones with pink (womens wore pink & white for the whole season, mens wore pink & maroon for one round then auctioned them off, all proceeds to breast cancer). We raised over $10000 & had our efforts reported in the Newcastle Herald, the womens team got an article on its own also which is pretty rare. So it was a great thing to do for the community but also for promoting the club to potential players/supporters & what we want to be about as a club. There are occasions where clubs do charity work more as a PR stunt, IMO, however I think this is more common in professional sport & its a bit different to local sports people who hold jobs &/or study - I put it in a very different category. For mine pro sports need to be careful when they time their charity efforts (where possible of course, for eg you couldnt time the QLD floods) or people can pick up on whether the motivation is more towards a PR activitity than a genuine act of charity.

"Inclusiveness" - All teams, male & female, all grades, all age groups (& if no age groups like mine at Uni then try to recruit to gain an underage team, which my club is trying to do + reach out to schoolgirl players, etc), supporters, staff/volunteers, etc. Once again seems simple but leave any particular group out & you'll create division in a club that isnt going to help club harmony. One eg. we announce male & female rep players in front of the entire club at the beginning of the year or as they occur, male & female club trophy presentation is done at the same event - not separate. We also maintain ties to old boys/girls & have the past accomplishments of these former players known to current & newer players. Once again, painfully simple & I know lots of clubs already do this but very effective in promoting common purpose at the club & sense of belonging to something worthwhile.

"Rivalries" - I agree that tribalism goes too far at times, we have a bit of that going on where I'm from too, but in regards to rivalries though I think they are a good thing & should be promoted. Lets face it when you've got two clubs that really dont like each other the stakes are higher, victory is sweeter & defeat is even harder than it normally would be. These kinds of highs & lows are something I love about Rugby & it adds to the comp plus fuels a lot of players to train harder which will improve them & their exisiting comp if many people are doing the same thing. It has been talked about in Newcastle about the prospect of having a round where only x2 clubs play, which sounds to me like a rivalry round or something similar.

So certainly not rocket science but from a country perspective these things I find are some of the very important parts of Rugby.

Club rugby here is basically one above U/19 school boy rugby. In the old days the big names use to play club rugby regularly as rugby was still a amateur sport and they were in the Universities and such. It use to be the feeding ground for talent. But the Provinces or the franchises as its now called basically scout schools and the under 21s as they each got a u/21 side playing in a u/21 league. The schools especially the Agriculture schools and big schools with the famous traditions and the money sponsoring boards at the school rugby field in turn scout smaller schools for talent and then off them school bursaries. Free education at a top school. Who would say no. Thats why they end up on the TV in documentaries bragging about their players that made it big. In reality they basically buy the players. And its still going on to this day.

so funny that theres only 4 posts in this thread..
I know my club could improve in communication, marketing, recruiting, money management, people management, the list goes on forever

So what do they do WELL?

play rugby, thats about it

Who is your club blindsider? They sound like a rabble

Despite being a young club, our club (Albany Creek Brumbies) does a number of things particularly well - and like all clubs we could improve in others. On the field, our boys (and girls) enjoy the sport immensely. Our numbers are swelling. Our board are dedicated (not to themselves!) and our volunteers tireless. We are even experiencing some success in each age group and division, and are lucky enough to have a few players selected for representative honours. We do however suffer a bit of the blinkered myopia that seems to dog all clubs of any code I have been involved in. We need to ensure that we realise that the real competition here is not between teams; nor is it between clubs. The competition on the field may be fierce between region, district state and nation - however the real competition is the one where we need to win the hearts and minds of kids and parents who would retreat to the 'safety' of soccer, the 'manliness' (spare me) of rugby league or the (god knows what - Capperism?) of AFL. Clubs and school competitions (GPS, TAS and AIC) need to work in concert to ensure that the young players that they are entrusted with are given the best opportunity to develop their talents within RUGBY not the dogma of their own idiom. (I still believe that the whole GPS, TAS, AIC hierarchy should be moved to a multi-tiered competition where teams are promoted/relegated dependent upon their performance at trials/previous season). I think that totals two bob, any one want this soap box?

Eggsie- are the Albany Creek Brumbies you are a part of associated with GPS?

I ask because we had a fantastic experience in trials there in early 2011. The club hosted all 7 teams (squads) from both Uni and GPS, did a bang-up job of running the BBQ (amazing burgers!) and the canteen etc. and it was SO ORGANISED and everyone was SO HELPFUL! (Sorry for shouting, but I believe that every senior club would be better if Juniors parents were involved)

I know that a huge number of juniors play there every weekend or two (and training on Friday nights) and there are large numbers passing through the canteen. But what impressed me the most was that the organisers of the day were able to cater to a completely different market. In many instances Juniors will arrive for their game, then they have to leave to get somewhere else- there's not a big segment who stay around to sit on the bench to watch the next game. In senior footy, most players will hang around to watch the next game/bench, almost all will grab a burger and a drink (likely more than one of each) and some will stay until the end of the final game. And in juniors, the canteen gets a workout from the kids, and the BBQ is largely the adult domain.

Albany Creek were able to cater a BBQ and canteen for 14 squads of 25-30 players in each, plus support staff, plus family, girlfriends, partners etc. I sincerely hope the club made a shitload of money- I know that juniors will spend very wisely!

The juniors club I'm involved with ran a "Come n Try" session early Feb last year, at rego time, and it was very successful, especially amongst the youngest age groups, leading to a big increase in the number of those teams for that season. It's a simple formula - widely advertised in the local schools, word of mouth, etc, free 1 hour event on a Friday night. The kids love the run around, aand the mums get to see that their little 6-year-old isn't going to get flattened playing rugby. The "two-handed touch" game for that age group is really a very good way to get them into the game.

Is that the problem, turned people away and they still think that they are not wanted? Not being in Sydney not sure if this would work but. what about putting feelers out to other clubs. Are they turning away players who they can direct to you? The 'we don't need any more players but I know these guys are desperate', might get some more people in. This of course relys on all clubs being in it for the greater good.

Other then that - letter box dropping a likely catchment area might help. Yeah I know more junk mail, but you will find that people who have recently moved to the area will look at their junk mail and just might be loking for something to do.

I think all clubs should consider developing strategies for including sevens for males and females. our club ran a program for schoolgirls to participate in a sevens tournament and got a huge turnout that increased interest in our club and playing for us in sevens and fifteens. Great way as well to keep some players involved with the club over summer months. I think sevens played at night could be a financial return for clubs as well if they are run it like the touch football comps are run. More interest in rugby and more revenue opportunities.

Barbarian i know the Nags guys and they were happy to support you during 2011 after Uni did the runner. Sad to hear they might stop the cash flow. It's tough for an Old boys side that has a lot of country boarders who return to the bush after a few years in the big smoke. Have you tried to the foreign market? A few subbies clubs have been able to ride out the player drain using this market for a few years.
Maybe get Nick Phipps on board just like Drew Mitchell is for balmain.