West Harbour saved their best rugby for the final two months of the season in 2023, upsetting several sides who went on to play finals footy and falling just short in a handful of other games.

Heading in to his second year as head coach at Concord, Cam Treloar wants his side to be great, not just good, and chase the club’s first finals appearance in over 10 years. 

Overview with Cam Treloar: 

“We just came back from our preseason camp which was a fantastic few days,” Treloar told Rugby News. 

“We went down to Yass and did an opposed scrimmage against Canberra Royals and then we pushed on through to a farm between Tumut and Gundagai which had the Tumut river running through it. 

“The boys got in and had a swim, then we camped in a big shed and enjoyed each other’s company. 

“Being Australian, we take for granted how special our country is. We’ve got a few English and Scots that have joined us and they were over the moon to see a Kangaroo. It was dead on the side of the road, but they were still excited and then they were even more excited when they saw a heap of them at the farm. 

“It’s easy to take little things like that for granted and it was great to share that experience the group. 

“In terms of the rugby, I think we’re heading in the right direction. We haven’t tried to reinvent the wheel over the summer, but our new players are fitting in well and there is a lot of competition for spots which is exactly what you want at this time of the year. 

“We also did an opposed session against Sydney Uni a few weeks back with a referee so it was good to see how the new laws were reffed. 

“The referees are learning on the run in the same way the players and coaches are. In the first game against Uni, we adapted to it quite well, then a week later against Royals we struggled a bit. 

“Looking ahead, we just can’t accept good anymore. We can’t just create opportunities and be happy with it. We’ve got to finish them off. That was our biggest downfall last year. We created a lot of opportunities and finished very few of them. 

“We don’t want good, we want great and if we can do that, I can’t see any reason why we won’t be playing finals footy this year.”

2023: 9th (6 wins, 11 losses, 1 draw)

Ins: Jordan Brown (MLR), Nick Brown (MLR/Manly), Micah Aish-Gillard (North Harbour, NZ), Will Roberts (athletics)

Outs: Prez Tufuga (Gordon), Siketi Tevao (Gordon), Callum Quinn (retired), Max Clementson (UK)

What sort of rugby will we see from Gordon this year?

“We’ll play a pretty open style. We could put out quite a sizeable forward pack which, with the new tackle laws, could be quite advantageous. 

“But the other side to that is that the new laws also probably opens up the game for a smaller, on the ball jackler. 

“You can put out the biggest pack possible and play an offload game, which is one of our strengths, but then you’ve got to weight that up against the threat of the little on-baller. 

“We’ll be playing open footy again though. We certainly aren’t a box kicking team.”

Players to watch:

“Will Roberts has grown up in Athletics and runs the 100 metres in 10.2 seconds. He’s played a lot of touch footy over the years but no rugby and is keen to see if he can make the transition,” Treloar explained.

“I’m really interested to see how he goes, particularly when you consider the impact a guy like Corey Toole is having down at the Brumbies. He could be anything because you just can’t coach that sort of speed.

“Vuate Karawalevu is now in his second season of rugby and has just finished his first full preseason with the Waratahs. 

“He was really good for us at the back of last year when he had just come from league and was still learning the game, so I think he’s got a lot of upside. 

“Visi Vaohea has been at the club for a while but he had a boxing fight just before Christmas and dropped a lot of weight to get ready for that. 

“He’s really stripped down and looks super fit at the moment and he’s a strong ball carrying No.8 who has looked really good throughout the preseason.”

Which two teams will play in this year’s grand final and why? 

“West Harbour and ….. Randwick,” Treloar said after a pause. 

“Randwick will have quite a turnover of players but they’ll always have a production line of guys from the UK who just love living in Coogee. And I really can’t blame them. Even when they don’t go chasing them, these guys just pop up there and that’s is pretty handy.”