BY MARK CASHMAN

As we all know good teams have numerous problem solvers and Warringah showed that they have a few on board in heaving northern beaches derby at Manly Oval last weekend.

Giving them the licence to act is another part of it and from what I am hearing from the Rats camp they were called on to get the job done last weekend.

Me old mate and Rugby News colleague Jonathan B. Geddes told Around The Traps about a coaching masterstroke that Josh Holmes pulled off.

I’ll let Geddes words for his Rats Tales newsletter this weekend take you on the journey:

“Instead of taking his team into the Manly Oval dressing room at halftime (they were down 24-12 at the break), he kept the players on the field, addressed them for five minutes and walked from the field,” Rats Tales reported

“He just gave us a good Josh spray,” centre Jackson Ropata added.

“He didn’t say much, but what he said was meaningful, and he’s passionate about what he does.”

Asked if it revved up the team, Ropata didn’t hesitate in replying: “100 per cent.”

One of the reasons why the Rats are on the first line of betting to go back to back in 2026.

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Around The Traps is an occasional contributor to the Shutecast Podcast and they have been powering through the first three weeks of the Shute Shield bringing you all the news and inside gos.

But one of the things that is getting great traction is former Norths premiership centre Harry Burey’s “stat of the week”.

The calls have gone out announcing that the segment is open to talk to potential sponsors as long as they are brewing giants or large hospitality groups.

This week’s stat centres around the ball in play time that was noticed in the Gordon v Randwick game at Chatswood Oval.

The ball in play time at Chatswood Oval was 38 minutes which is up by more than four minutes on the competition average.

That’s another 12 percent of action which is pretty damn good.

“At one point I thought that I was watching this game in fast forward,” Burey told the Shutecast audience.

“I was waiting for the action to slow down but they just kept on going.”

Sometimes the show is brought together from some bizarre places with host Anthony Bergelin recording the show a fortnight ago from the wilds of Tasmania as he celebrated his wedding anniversary on a lap of the Apple Isles.

‘Bergo’ has numerous recommendations if you’re keen on eating good food, glamping and drinking some excellent wine.

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A lot off people are asking what happened to the Two Blues lower grades last weekend against Sydney Uni.

Their fourth grade side lost 109-5, third grade conceded 95 points and the first colts went down 81-14.

Now I know Uni when they are in the mood can rack up a score and it was a public holiday weekend but that is not a good thing at this early stage of the season.

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Around The Traps  was at North Sydney Oval last Saturday taking in the action in the Norths v Wests encounter and as happens with the old and the bold the topic turned to where does the Shute Shield sit in the rugby eco system.

Yes I know you’re shocked we weren’t talking about how good we once were and how things were a lot better in “our day”.

The general consensus of opinion at this table of knowledge was that our club competitions sits apart from the professional system.

Important yes but the Shute Shield and the Hospital Cup are attached but not really umbilically connected to the professional game in Australia.

Not sure if this was a planned evolution but it’s where we sit at this point in time.

Sure there are fringe squad members filtering through to play club footy at different times but it’s not like it was in the early days of professionalism.

And with the Super Rugby AU games at the back end of the years now being played the back filling of rep stars will be become even more rare.

Let the great debate begin!

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And then there were three.

You’ve probably heard this about the place but the big boss at Rugby News Sam Ryan and his wonderful partner Hannah have welcomed Harry James into their lives.

They are all home now getting on with life with their “cuddly koala” so if you see Sam and his looking a bit distracted and in need of an afternoon nap, well there is a reason.

All this harks back to a memory some 40 plus years ago when my wife Toni and I arrived home from hospital with young Sam and thinking to ourselves, what do we do now?

I’m sure Hannah, Sam and Harry will sort it all out! Heartiest congratulations guys.

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Mark ‘Doggy’ Delamere, who passed away recently, rubbed shoulders with some of the greats.

He was the son of former Australian rugby league international Bill Delamare and played all his junior rugby with the Seaforth Pirates.

But he played in a Sydney Under 16s side that included the Ella brothers, Mark, Glen and Gary and was integral to the Blues (as they were then known) 1983 premiership.

‘Doggy’ you could say struck when the iron was hot notching up 52 grade games over four seasons including a total of 16 games in the Shute Shield side that won the premiership in 1983.

That polarising Manly coach from that time Alan Jones reported that he was the most improved footballer at the club in 1983.

He is survived by his wife Kim and children Danielle, Hayley and Scott.

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There will be a little bit of history made at Bon Andrews Oval on the weekend when the Northern Suburbs women’s side, the Sirens play their first ever game of XVs.

The Sirens have been fielding Sevens and 10s sides these last couple of seasons but this is their first crack at the fuller version of our great game.

Norths head coach Zak Beer presented the girls with their jerseys at training earlier this week and will be part of a larger thrown that will be urging them on against Randwick.

Should be quite an occasion.