By MARK CASHMAN

The Battle of the Beaches generally doesn’t need too much pumping up but Around The Traps is hearing that Wallaby Reece Hodge has put his hand up to play fullback for the Manly Marlins.

Hodge was not included in Eddie Jones squad for the two Bledisloe Cup games over the next two weekends but he’s obviously keen to get some game time.

He’ll come into the Marlins picture at fullback and is sure to add a bit of gloss to what is always a willing encounter.

The Marlins hold the whip hand heading into this game after winning well at Manly Oval in May but these games never seem to go to any sort of plan.

Intriguing that one of Hodge’s best mates Sam Lane at Manly has jumped ship and is now helping with the coaching of the backs at Warringah.

The Marlins are still in the loop to make the finals after a couple of flat weeks and two draws over thew past month.

Hodge’s booming boot with the wind behind him at Rat Park may just be the tonic they need.

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Sydney Uni held their fourth annual legends lunch at the birthplace last weekend in and around their game against Eastern Suburbs.

Wallabies Gregg Burrow, Roger Davis and Phil Crowe were on the panel and spoke about their time in the game and their links to and their love of the Students.

Burrow, an orthopaedic surgeon who specialises in shoulders and knees, spoke of his knack of being in the right place at the right time in his Rugby career.

He was called into the Grand Slam tour in 1984 and also was selected in Alan Jones’ side that won the Bledisloe Cup in New Zealand in 1986.

That’s two of the game’s major achievements of the past 40 years and one that he was thankful to be able to play a role.

Davis, an investment banker, spoke of his relationship with the great Dave Brockhoff and of the decision to head overseas to study just when his Wallabies career was taking off.

Crowe, a surgical oncologist, is one of the rare breed to have played for the Wallabies before playing for either Sydney or NSW.

In all he played six Test for the Wallabies highlighted by the 12-6 win over New Zealand in 1979 that secured the Bledisloe Cup for the first time in 30 years.

Interestingly Crowe revealed that he had a first class cricket career when he was in the UK as a Rhodes Scholar playing for the Oxford Blues as a sometimes right arm trundler. His figures for his one and only match were 1/123

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There were plenty of movers and shakers on the table that Around The Traps was lucky enough to be allocated at the Sydney Uni Legends lunch.

Table 3 featured David Mortimer, president and former Wallaby David Lyons, NSW Rugby CEO Paul Doorn, sports admin guru John Boultbee, former ABC boss and now Uni vice-chancellor Mark Scott, The Roar’s Christy Doran, St John’s College chair Dr Mark Schembri and corporate comms heavy hitter Sally Loane.

Certainly had to mind my Ps and Qs!

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We’ve still got a few weeks till the Shute Shield finals series gets underway but the good old game of musical chairs – or is it the hunger games – for the first grade sides is well underway.

At last count Gordon, Eastern Suburbs, Eastwood and Warringah are all in the process of interviewing for their clubs’ 2024 mentors.

Northern Suburbs announced last week that they have Zak Beer all tied up for next year and that is an excellent move considering the work he has done over the past couple of years.

Around The Traps is hearing whispers that one Shute Shield coach on the rise has sounded out the bosses of two of those clubs in the market for a new head coach.

Another coach who has had great success in recent times could well land somewhere in the east if his aspirations a bit further up the pathway don’t bear fruit.

There has even been interest from Japan at one of the major clubs with a rich history of winning.

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Milestones are part and parcel of the Shute Shield so it’s only fitting that Around The Traps acknowledges the major milestone that Gordon’s skipper James Lough will rack up this weekend.

‘Loughy’ will play his 100th first grade game at Chatswood Oval against the Two Blues and like most clubs the Highlanders got the news out on their social streams.

But the number of likes, shares and comments was simply astounding with a wide range of good Rugby people like Tony Dempsey, Tahs coach Darren Coleman and Hayden Rorke wishing him well.

Lough has been part of the fabric of the club and I am sure he will put all the good wishes to one side and get on with the job at hand.

And that’s not an easy one with the way that the Two Blues are travelling at the moment.

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I know this item isn’t strictly from in and around the Shute Shield but I’d like to give a huge shout out to Al Liebick from Grenfell Panthers who has notched up his 500th club game.

Around The Traps understands that Liebeck is still one of the fittest players at the club and his career stats include playing in 16 grand finals in a row.

Liebeck won his first title at the Panthers in 1987 and was a NSW Country champion in 1988.

Rugby Australia has been talking about the golden decade of Rugby that we are just getting underway but good old Al has already been through his own.

Liebeck won 10 premierships in a row from 1990 right through until 1999. He’s truly a man of steel!

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The bug gets you eventually and Warringah Shute Shield winner in 2017 Dave Feltscheer is no exception.

The last time Around The Traps bumped into Feltscheer at Rat Park he had his first born on his hip and saying that pulling the boots on was the last thing on his mind.

Well as the weather turns cold and the finals loom a lot of things change and Feltscheer was back on the field for the Rats fourth grade side.

As always he did some good things from the back and managed to help the Rats to what was an upset 24-7 win over Southern Districts.

The Ratties fourth grade side are on the edges of the top six and will need a bit of luck to make the finals.

But as they say nothing is impossible!

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While we are on the northern beaches they have some big hitters supervising the parking area – former president Phil Parsons is the big man at the gate and as you would imagine no-one, not even Rugby News’ Jonathan B. Geddes, gets in without handing over the folding stuff!

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Many of you may well have noticed the sizeable strip of tape that Sydney Uni skipper Jack McCalman wears across his ‘hooter’ in games.

McCalman has led the way for the Students in recent rounds scoring a couple of good tries from close range but all that stuff means the nose gets a bit of belting.

He told Stan Sport’s Clubland show earlier this week that the extra bit of tape now means he gets some extra attention.