By James Wong

Sustaining success is one of the greatest challenges for any sports team, and especially for club teams that are much more susceptible to the comings and goings of key players and coaches. Three time reigning Dewar Shield premiers Harlequins will be looking to continue their success as the first round of the Melbourne club competition on March 19 rapidly approaches.

With their victory in the 2015 Dewar Shield, Harlequins joined Melbourne, Powerhouse and Box Hill as clubs that have completed the triple in recent years. But not since Moorabbin in the 1980s has a team won four in a row.

Harlequins Chair of Rugby Brock Parker maintains that the team won’t be looking towards the past as the new season commences but does expect to be in contention once more.

“We always make sure we treat every new season as a new season, we don’t look back at last season as ‘we’re trying to win four in a row.’ We’re trying to win in 2016. What happened in 2015, that’s history.

We’re focused on trying to win again; we’ve been in finals every year bar one for the last 20 years, so we definitely would be looking at first grade at least making finals.”

Coaching changes

2016 will see Harlequins with a fourth different head coach in four years as Pom Simona takes over the reins after serving as the first grade forwards coach last season. 2015 mentor Cliff Viliamu has stepped back into the forwards coaching role.

Harlequins lock Angus Hamilton – a member of all three premiership sides and captain of two of them – sees the positives in the coaching changes.

“It keeps things fresh. Obviously each person has their preferred way of doing things and while you might like one way more than another, learning a new way of doing things can be beneficial. It keeps everyone interested.”

Key departures could make a difference

While the bulk of the squad return in 2016, Harlequins will be without a few key figures this season who will be difficult to replace.

“We’ve had a couple of players move on through retirement. One of our mainstays over the last three years, Justin Masters, who’s also with Melbourne Rising, has moved up to try his hand in Sydney. He was our fullback so losing him is going to be a great challenge,” Parker said.

“One of the main stalwarts for us has been Lloyd Johansson the ex-Wallaby. At the moment Lloyd is playing but he is hoping to have a deal overseas some time which means there is a good chance he may be leaving mid-season, which would leave a huge hole.”

One new player that Parker hopes will offset such losses is scrum-half Lucky Palamo who joins the team from New Zealand where he represented Counties Manakau in the ITM Cup.

This season also sees the continuation of the policy of having Rebels squad members only play club rugby in Victoria, a development which has strengthened the Dewar Shield competition over the last two seasons according to Parker.

Harlequins have four Rebels involved this year. While they are unlikely to see much of Wallaby hooker James Hanson, Parker is hopeful other Rebels squad members Steve Cummins, Tom Moloney, and former Australian 7s representative Paul Asquith will suit up for Harlequins this season.

Youth the key

Another factor that could see Harlequins push for a fourth consecutive title is the club’s strong contingent of younger players.

Harlequins boast eight players who are part of the Rebels U20s squad. The main standout being Rebels U20s No.8 and captain Ta Hosea who Parker is hoping to see return to action with Harlequins after suffering a knee injury last year.

“He was outstanding for us last year but only played three games because he injured his knee at Rebels training. To get more game-time out of him would be fantastic.”

Colts success

Harlequins have a long tradition of promoting young players through the ranks and into their first grade side and 2016 is set to be no different.

The club’s Colts side has won four of the last five Victorian Colts competitions and that success is transferring into senior sides. Parker estimates that forty-five percent of last year’s premiership winning squad played Colts for the club.

Recent changes to the competition structure have also eased the process for clubs.

“One of the really good things with that transition is that for the last three years the Colts competition has finished early. So after that the Colts players who want to keep playing, which is usually about 60 to 70 percent of them, push into seniors for the rest of the year,” Parker explained.

“That has made it really easy when they finish up Colts they’re far more familiar with the senior set-up, they also know all the senior players a lot better, that’s really made the process far, far easier.”​