BY MARK CASHMAN

Southern Districts captain Isaac Kneepkens’ sensational Catchpole Medal win earlier this week almost didn’t happen – a couple of times.

Kneepkens, 27, was due to head over to the United States earlier this year to link with MLR club, the New England Free Jacks, but baulked when the shrinking competition couldn’t provide enough certainty for his young family.

A year earlier, he fell just short of picking up a full time gig with the Force after spending a preseason in Perth.

A season in the Shute Shield with Southern Districts wasn’t too shabby an alternate and so he went about his stuff trying to make the Rebels better.

Then in the Round 14 game against Warringah at home he tweaked his hamstring and many thought his season was gone.

But he worked away with the Rebels medical staff and got himself back on the field and managed to grab the votes needed to secure the Catchpole in those final rounds.

Kneepkens beat Randwick backrower Isi Naisarani to the honour by just two points with the winning votes coming late in the home and away season.

His coach Scott Fava said Kneepkens’ quiet, follow me style of leadership helped Souths in what was a challenging season.

“What you look for in a leader for a high performance program is someone that’s actually been in that environment,” Fava told Around The Traps.

“Lead the behaviours and lead the standards. Isaac was one of those guys – he didn’t really say much, but what he said, was on point, and for me, that was good enough.

“I think back on his early dressing room speeches to now and he’s grown into such an accomplished leader.

“It’s been a great experience being part of the journey with him.”

Other winners at the Catchpole included Oliver Schmude from Uni (rookie of the year), Josh Holmes from Rats (coach of the year) and Harry Fenton (referee of the year).

Cole Spinks (Gordon) won the Roscoe Fay trophy for highest points scorer, Benjy Joseland (Sydney Uni) took out most tries and Mick Debrezceni won volunteer of the year.

Easts won the club championship silverware and Brett Papworth was formally inducted as a SRU life member.

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The Shute Shield grand final at Leichhardt Oval on Saturday, September 5 is going to be next level, and we’re not just talking about the 80 minutes on the field.

SRU president Grahame O’Donnell, as he told Around The Traps earlier this week has, “thrown the keys” to board member John Murray and told him to “entertain us”.

More details will emerge in coming weeks but the one thing that got my attention was the Next Prop Model challenge.

This will more than likely be run at halftime in the main game and will involve a prop from each Shute Shield club dressed in Budgie Smugglers racing over 50 metres.

Winner will take away $1000 and there will also be a women’s challenge along the same lines.

AC/DC tribute band Dirty Deeds will also be at the ground and DJ Rob, so popular at Easts home games, will be there to up the tempo at the right time.

Stan Sport luminaries Cam Shepherd and Andrew Swain will also be on hand in the GH Mumm VIP Lounge doing interviews with the good, great and good looking.

“We want to sell the place out,” Murray said. “It’s $30 to get in, there are no NRL games in Sydney on that day and there’s a truckload of entertainment.”

A radio advertising campaign onboard 2GB will launch this week and that will be backed up by some outdoor advertising.

Stay tuned for even more events as they are locked in in coming weeks.

That VIP lounge sounds pretty hand!

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The appointment of Michael Cheika as the new Waratahs coach earlier this week was an explosion with major ramifications for the game not only in NSW but across the nation.

Around The Traps had been hearing for a number of weeks that ‘Cheik’ was firming in the betting as the ceremonial dance that these things can become played out.

We also heard that Stephen Hoiles was another name on the dream team and that his details would be worked through once ‘Cheik’ was on board.

Deeper in the back room they have also acquired the services of Tahs great Wycliff Palu.

Palu had agreed to mentor the WS Two Blues forwards next year in a part time role but the Tahs role trumped that.

It means that Two Blues Director of Rugby Sailosi Tagicakibau needs to find a new forwards coach after Travis Church took up a job in Portugal.

Tagicakibau will be the head coach in 2027 and is keen to see the club continue to grow and play finals for the first time in quite a while.

Palu lives with his family in Blacktown and I am sure he will be seen at ‘The Eric’ at times.

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We all consume our Shute Shield content in different ways these days and the quality and insight that we glean from this new world should be embraced.

Podcasts, Instagram reels, YouTube content and things like good old Rugby News all connect to a new audience that needs to be nurtured.

Cass Davis does some great work in and around the Rats games and she may have stumbled on to a bit of an exclusive last weekend.

She interviewed whistleblower Angus Gardner straight after the Randwick v Warringah game at Coogee Oval and got some great insights.

Gardner, who is off soon to control a couple of games on the All Blacks tour of South Africa, spoke of the prep that he and all the other Shute Shield refs do.

That involved watching both teams’ recent games, line out of scrummaging trends and speaking to the coaches as well as team leaders.

Good content, good insight!

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Who is the prominent Shute Shield personality who shied away from flashing his seniors card at his local yoga studio until he found out that his status qualified him for a discount?

I’m hearing he didn’t want his instructor to think he wasn’t in her “demographic”