Around the Traps
We’re into the fourth 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:
GORDON HAVE been the white hot side at the start of the 2020 Shute Shield, combining great pace out wide a good playmaker in RODNEY IONA at flyhallf and a pack of forwards that gets the job done.
Their coach DARREN COLEMAN has been their agent of change over the past couple of seasons and he has left a legacy at each of the clubs that he has coached at in Sydney.
In more recent times it has been at Warringah where ‘DC’ delivered them a premiership but elsewhere there was his time Eastern Suburbs, Penrith and Northern Suburbs.
The Gordon and Warringah worlds come together on Saturday and from what I have been hearing it is the friendships bonds that will be on show at Chatswood Oval.
Rats boss MIKE RUTHVEN told RATS TALES this week: “Darren’s been a good mentor for me and you always like to challenge yourself against good coaches.
“He is certainly someone I respect highly, but probably more importantly I just developed a really good friendship with Darren,” he explained to JON GEDDES, the man behind
the popular POPS McDONALD book and RATS TALES’ ever present man on the ground.
“He’s someone I can ring and I know I can
bounce anything off. But it is crucial for our season and important we carry the momentum of the win last week.”
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UP ON THE far north coast of NSW the LENNOX HEAD TROJANS have been fielding a couple of heavyweights in their first grade side of late.
Former Wallaby, Queensland Red and Waratah BERRICK BARNES as well as Wallabies attack guru SCOTT WISEMANTEL have been guiding the Trojans around.
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FORMER WALLABY prop BEN DARWIN
now lives in Melbourne with his wife and
four children and with stage four lockdown very much in operation down there there is obviously plenty of time to ponder life and his passion for statistics.
‘Door’, who works for GAIN LINE ANALYTICS, says that if you wear a jersey that is fundamentally different to your normal one (like a ladies day number) your win percentage drops by about 30 percent.
Along with that points scored drops but
defence seems to have stayed much the same in the games that he has been looking at in both league and union.
There is still some more research to do on this one but it’s food for thought.
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THE FORMER GORDON first grade coach GEOFF TOWNSEND has done many things as a player and coach but the last thing that I expected from him was a novel.
TOWNSEND steered the HIGHLANDERS between 2014 and 2016 and was the foundation coach of the NORTH HARBOUR RAYS when the NATIONAL RUGBY CHAMPIONSHIP kicked off in 2014.
I got to know Geoff while I was MEDIA MANAGER at the Rays and he was always great to deal with despite the fact that wins were short on the ground.
He played at SOUTHERN DISTRICTS back in the day and besides his passion for coaching (which he did all over the world) he harboured a desire to write a book.
Well he’s done just that with the release of his fictional novel with a rugby theme called WHO BROUGHT THE FOOTBALL.
It is a light-hearted, politically incorrect depiction of a young Australian club rugby team on the tour of the United States as they crash-tackle their way through California, Arizona, Colorado and Hawaii often with hilarious and humiliating results.
Who Brought the Football?, as the title suggests, is about a rugby team that forgot to take a ball on tour and embarrassingly forced to practise in San Francisco with a shoe.
Google it up and you’ll be able to buy it and read it on-line.
EVERYBODY HAS a story and Northern Suburbs board member and leading fitness industry consultant JUSTIN TAMSETT is
one about giving back to the community in Sydney’s north and north west – in two sports.
When he’s not watching the Shoremen on Saturday he’s coaching netball with his daughter’s netball team at Beecroft.
And making a significant difference from what I can gather as they seem to be heading for their third straight premiership.
His journey started as the dad that put his hand up to have a go and it has just grown from there. He is now coaching director at Beecroft and has taken his vast experience in sport – 25 years playing rugby and 10 years coaching including time at Eastwood.
It makes for one hell of a Saturday but as he told www.netball.com.au it’s something that has been tremendously rewarding.
So what does he like most about netball: “The women of netball understand who their market is, and they understand that ‘if I look after this little girl, and I sign her autograph or I spend
a minute talking to her, that little girl will never forget that and want to come back every week to watch’. And I do notice that difference.’’
Something to remember for sure!
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THE WEST HARBOUR old boys are hoping that the forecast rain holds off this weekend so they can loiter around the Young Henry’s bar on the hill at Drummoyne Oval on Saturday and talk about how good they were.
It’s Back to Wests day when the Pirates take on Randwick and a grand collection of their best and boldest are expected to turn up to watch the current generation go about their work.
Big names expected include that perennial Rothmans Medaliist Neale Murphy and
Bob Ellis, but unfortunately one of the best STEPHEN JAMES cannot attend because of his skills coaching work at the NRL Bulldogs which requires him to be in THE NRL BUBBLE.
Closer to the action RORY SIDEY, who had a couple of season in Wales with the Newport Gwent Dragons before coming back to play Super Rugby for the Waratahs, Western Force and Melbourne Rebels, will present MARK GUDMUNSON’s first grade side with their jumpers before the game.
Let’s hope that Sidey has the magic touch and the Concord boys can break their Shute Shield duck in 2020.