by Paul Cook –

It’s been a long time between drinks for Randwick in terms of Intrust Super Shute Shield titles, certainly for a club of their illustrious history in the competition. Having won 14 Premierships in 19 years between 1978-1996, the Wicks have claimed only two in the 19 years since, their last triumph coming in 2004. But while it is unfair to measure the current young crop of Galloping Greens to their forebears just yet, there is certainly an air of expectation around Coogee Oval that they are heading in the right direction.

Last Saturday’s 36-26 defeat of Sydney University, their second win over the Students this year, lifted them to a share of top spot on the ladder and re-affirmed their title credentials amongst a pack of teams all seemingly with a chance of lifting Sydney club rugby’s ultimate prize. With four rounds of the regular season remaining, only 8pts separates 1st from 8th in what looms as the tightest run to the finals in living memory. But after just over a decade of coming up short, this Wicks outfit appears to have the tools to go all the way and break that Premiership drought.

Year one of head coach Shannon Fraser’s masterplan went pretty much according to script, as a squad of raw talent was slowly coaxed and moulded into a side with an improved basic skill set and structure, and capable of beating anyone on their day. What was still missing was the consistency of performance required to sustain a serious challenge, and the experience, game smarts and gnarly edge to their work necessary to hold firm against the very best in the competition at the pointy end of the season.

The target for season two then, was to kick-on from the platform they had laid the previous year and transform themselves from finals hopefuls into genuine title contenders. Five wins from five to start 2016 certainly served notice of their loftier ambitions, with the impressive dispatching of reigning Premiers Eastwood in particular, a performance and result that had many club rugby followers sitting up and taking notice. But as Fraser told Rugby News this week, the level of opposition in that opening salvo of fixtures put a slightly rose-tinted sheen to that early progress.

“The start of the season was a little bit of a false dawn,” he observed. “While it doesn’t take away from the results we had in the first few rounds, realistically, we’d played the bottom three teams so we had to keep that in perspective. But also, it’s important not to overlook the achievement of an undefeated start, as our own structures and systems were in the early stages and not as well engrained as they are now.”

Sam Croke has been a consistent performer for the Wicks this season – Photo: Ric McLallen

Having soared to the top of the ladder with that blistering start, a challenging mid-part of the season saw the wind drop from their sails with four losses from their next six matches, as the hard fought competition intensified. Early season favour from Joe Public turned to mid-season uncertainty as to whether this team was in it for the long haul. But having come through that testing period and out the other side to regain their mojo – the win over Uni was their third in a row – Fraser believes they are all the better for it.

“It’s a strange thing but the belief wasn’t lost,” he says. “The guys have been working really hard and while the results weren’t coming for a few weeks we learnt some valuable lessons. We could very easily have jagged one or two of those losses and we had a shot to win, or at least draw, each one, so we weren’t far off.

“It’s a group that has been together all of last year as well, give or take one or two people, and we’ve weathered a lot of things together, success and failure over that time, and the group is quite tight as a result. They’ve shown a lot of character all season, from round one where we fought back with two late tries against Parramatta, to holding out Uni on their own turf and also keeping a sporadic attacking team like Penrith to zero, so we’ve got that steel within the group as well. 

“We’re a very confident group and we’re very confident with where we’re at and we used the losses that we had and the performances that weren’t up to our standard, as building blocks for future success. They are inexperienced – amazingly talented, enthusiastic and work really hard – but still inexperienced. You don’t get that experience overnight and those results and performances are going to be crucial lessons for us to call on at the end of the year.”

What is evident is that this is a well-coached side that have been making incremental gains on the training paddock in the areas identified as weaknesses. They have grown from a side capable of the occasional upset, to one that can sustain a high level of performance against the best sides on a weekly basis, and any soft underbelly that existed before, has been usurped by a workrate, aggression, physicality and defensive mindset that is proving hard to overcome.

These boys have become men.

“We spent a lot of pre-season and a lot of last year working on our fundamental skills,” explains Fraser. “And while we’re still reinforcing that, we’ve been doing a lot more on our game control and looking at ways we can swing the game in our favour, and that comes from a lot of decision making stuff we’re doing at training.

“We also put a lot of emphasis on our physical preparation and that goes hand in hand with our training for some of the physical elements of the game. We’re in good physical shape and we’ve got a bit of an appetite for that side of the game now. We also have the confidence when we are defending our line that it’s not panic stations because we know we have the ability to deal with it.”

Will Munro has been an abrasive presence in the Wicks pack all year – Photo: Ric McLallen

Based on current standings, the Wicks have the third hardest run-in fixtures-wise behind Easts and Warringah – if that even means anything in this all-bets-are-off season! With games to come against West Harbour, Souths, Eastwood and the Rats, three wins should see them safely into the finals as a top four side, four may even snag the holy grail of a home qualifying final. But while the end game is an improvement on last season’s sixth place finish, and a concerted assault on the title, the level headed Fraser is only focused on what lies directly in front of his young contenders.

“If you look too far ahead you can get caught up in the ‘what if’s’ or the ‘imagine this’ so I see it as part of my role as coach to manage this and keep the group focused on the here and now,” he says. “We are taking each game one at a time, I know that’s a cliché but it’s exactly what we are doing. West Harbour on Saturday is our only concern right now and given their strong performance against Eastwood last week, we know we’ll need to be well prepared.

“You play the game to be better than your previous self and your opponent, and from the very start of the pre-season we’ve set ourselves the goal of improving every week and finishing in the top four,” he finished. “Nothing has changed and those goals remain relevant to the group and to this season.

“We believe we have the capacity to beat any team in the competition. That’s not being arrogant, we just have a lot of confidence in our ability and in what we are doing. We’re not going to hang our hat on the rebuilding mantra this year, we are here to win games and we are here to make the top four, or even top two, and we need to keep putting back-to-back wins together in order to chase that. It is exciting to be approaching the finals but like I said, our only concern at the moment is West Harbour.”