Billy Melrose started 2023 by walking out at Gordon following a dispute with the new club president. He was back as head coach a week later, then stood down again at the end of the season.

It was a rollercoaster season for the Stags, but in between all of that, Gordon played some really good rugby and came close to upsetting Randwick in the opening week of the finals.

Overview with Billy Melrose:

"It was a frustrating season and a fairly strange season to be honest. It was well documented that the start of our season was incredibly unique and because of that, we essentially played a 17 round season,” Melrose told Rugby News.

“Due to the circumstances, we were incredibly under prepared for round one and that was a bit of a hiccup.

“We fought our way back into the competition by the mid way point, then our major injury toll started to take an effect and ultimately while we started to get momentum towards the end of the season, we left our run too late.

“It was a year where we never really got within three players of having our best team on the park and that had an impact.