By MARK CASHMAN

We’re into the 11th round of the Shute Shield competition and the phone has been ringing hot with all the news and views from the greatest club competition in Australia. Here’s what we are hearing: 

So sad to hear of the passing of one of the greats of the RANDWICK club, five time Shute Shield winner, JOHN WEBER at the age of 82 this week.

I can remember watching Weber play for the Galloping Greens in the early 1970s when Coogee Oval ran east-west and the ABC was where you watched the game on Saturday afternoon.

Weber was a giant of a man, who played No.8 and lock and was the mainstays of the Wicks pack for more than a decade from 1960.

He played 244 First Grade games in that time breaking the long standing record of Cyril Towers. 

Weber played in five Shute Shield winning sides sides (1965, 1966, 1967, 1971 and 1973) with his final game in the 1973 Grand Final against Wests. Like he did for most of his career, he went out a winner.

He was awarded the Wally Meagher Trophy for Outstanding Clubman in 1973 and was recognised as one of Randwick best ever players with his elevation into Randwick Hall of Fame in 2016.

The rep selectors for some reason didn’t rate him and he only occasionally featured in the Sydney and NSW teams in the day.

He is survived by his wife Helen, his children Jason, Alyson and Kieren, his five grandchildren.

The funeral details are yet to finalised.

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Saturday’s results were Easts 56 Penrith 19, West Harbour 50 Two Blues 15, Warringah 50 Wildfires 15, Norths 35 Souths 17, Randwick 34 Manly 15, Gordon 34 Sydney Uni 24.

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Away from the sadness of losing a club great in John Weber, Randwick will celebrate indigenous round at Coogee Oval on Saturday.

The Galloping Greens have always had great links with the First Nations community with the likes of the Ella brothers Mark, Gary and Glen, Andrew Walker and Lloyd Walker all playing at the club.

Dylan Pietsch helped design a special jersey while Triston Reilly will wear special boots that celebrate his indigenous heritage on the north coast as a Dunghutti man. 

Reilly’s boots were painted by his uncle Richard Campbell.

It should be a great day and there will be numerous activities including a smoking cermonye, a welcome to country and the national anthem sung in the indigenous tongue which was such a hit at the game against Argentina last year before the Rugby World Cup in Japan.

It’s always an enlightening conversation when you chat to Southern Districts coach TODD LOUDEN about the direction of the both the Rebels and the Shute Shield competition.

Louden reckons that the points system that we currently operate under should be sidelined for a marquee player system similar to the one used in the Top League in Japan.

In Japan only six bona fide foreign players are allowed in a match-day squad – and only five can be on the field at any one time. 

Of those six players, at least half have to be potentially eligible to play for Japan in the future: either born here, have a Japanese grandparent or lived in Japan for five years without having played for another international side.

Eastern Suburbs and Gordon are the ones sailing close to the points cap and I would imagine welcome a move like that.

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Good news that Penrith and hopefully the Hunter Wildfires will be part of the Shute Shield in 2021.

Penrith are making some progress on and off the field and I can see their colts being a force next year.

The Emus won the Under 16 State Championship last year and many of these players will be flowing through to their colts system.

I am told that the meeting that decided to give the Emus entree into the competition next year also considered a promotion and relegation option.

That didn’t get off the ground and if we cast our mind back to the 1980s it’s probably a good thing that it didn’t.

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It’s increasingly becoming a young man’s game but MARTY LISIUA and the Hunter Wildfires are turning that theory on its head.

The 52-year-old Lisiua played 20 minutes off the bench for the Wildfires’ reserve grade side against Southern Districts and in that time showed there was still life.

He was part of the last Wildfires side to play in the Shute Shield a little over 21 years ago and came back as a special favour to Wildfires coach SCOTT COLEMAN.

James Gardiner from the Newcastle Herald reported that he hasn’t had a functioning ACL since 2008 but wraps everything up and gets on with it.

He retired in 2015 but made a comeback in 2018 much to his wife’s angst. Well done Marty and as they say you are a long time retired!

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Interesting thoughts from Warringah coach MIKE RUTHVEN in this week’s RATS TALES newsletter where he say he see a lot of a young Stephen Larkham in his new No.10 BEN MARR.

Ruthven made the big selection call last week to move Marr to flyhalf to try and fix his stuttering backline and it certainly seemed to work.

Marr scored a hat trick of tries and as they had said before the game against the Two Blues he attracts defence and that meant that there were opportunities elsewhere for his teammates.

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Great promotion from the Manly club at their game against Eastern Suburbs last weekend where they gave out a mini footy and had some player cards printed up of all the regular first graders for the kiddies.

The most popular card was rising winger Yool Yool and late arrivers were still asking for the collector’s item well after kick off against the Beasties.

IMAGE: ANDREW QUINN / GORDON RUGBY