by Paul Cook –

Warringah are a side that have been making steady progress in recent years and they will be looking to kick-on again when the 2016 Shute Shield competition kicks-off next month.

2015 saw another late coaching reshuffle disrupt the Rats’ pre-season and it took time for the team – and incoming head coach Greg Marr – to bed down and figure out what exactly it was they wanted from each other. When they did, they showed once again why on their day, they can be considered as genuine title challengers. They just need to experience those days a touch more consistently.

Rugby News sat down with Marr recently to discuss his first year up at Rat Park and how their season developed from a slow start into a surge towards finals footy, before ending in a gallant but frustrating loss to the eventual champions.

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Give us a brief overview of the season from your perspective?

Greg Marr: “I’d have to say a little bit disappointing. We finished really well in 2014 and 2015 was gearing up nicely until we had the late coaching change (incumbent head coach Haig Sare left the role for family reasons), which I think upset the balance of the boys a bit. There was a bit of adaptation needed for them when I came along and also, with Michael Lipman still onboard and Mark Gerrard helping us out before he went back to Japan, it was a case of the coaches getting used to each other and who was doing what.

“Once that had all settled down and the guys were less distracted by the changes, we started to play some footy and get some consistency in our game and went alright as a result. But in the big games, whilst we played well, beat Manly and got pretty close to Eastwood and Uni a couple of times, we just lacked that mental strength to finish games off or come from behind when we were under pressure. We definitely took steps forward from the beginning of the year and I think we ended up being feared and respected by the other teams. But we let ourselves down with some silly decisions at times, alongside copping some unfortunate injuries.”

The team lost three of your first four matches and the only win, over Norths, was by a point. Was that slow start a direct result of the pre-season disruptions?

“Yeah, I think so – that and the Sevens. Basically, our whole backline had featured in our successful Sevens squad so they took time to adjust back to 15’s and then Harry Jones got injured at the last minute and Brad Dixon also got injured and he was going well. The same thing happened to Josh Gillard, who was playing very well at 12 for us and was ruled out for the rest of the season so, we certainly didn’t have a lot of luck on that front but every team gets injuries and you just have to try and get by.”

But you then clicked into gear to go on a five match winning run to sit in the top four at the halfway mark of the season. You must have been pleased with the progress at that point?

“The guys knuckled down but I think all of us got together to try and turn things around. The three coaches and the boys sat down one night and talked about what we were doing at training and what was working and what wasn’t and we started to turn things around. Once we realised we were all on the same page, we moved forward and the boys started enjoying themselves more. They trained hard but there was also plenty of talking and they were having some fun, and that’s always a good sign.”

Then came a testing couple of weeks against Sydney Uni and Manly, and despite coming away empty handed, you put up respectable performances against two title favourites that could have earned more?

“We certainly let them know that we were there. In the past, I think they may have dismissed us a bit, especially with the softs start that we’ve had, so it was important to lay down a marker. But, it’s also important that once you do that, you’ve got to keep going, you can’t start resting on your laurels. On our day, we are a match for anyone in the competition, we just couldn’t seem to put it together for 80 minutes every week.”

It was a difficult day all round at Manly Oval with Kotoni’ Ale’s terrible injury – a player well known to both clubs. A tough afternoon all round?

“They should have called it off really. Forty minutes standing around and no-one allowed off the field while we waited for an ambulance and then a special ambulance. Everyone was just thinking about Kotoni, the last thing anyone wanted to do was play footy but it was a TV game and they said the show must go on. If you take that sad event out of it, it was a pretty good game with some great tries scored and in front of a big crowd.”

The team kicked on from that defeat to produce arguably your best and most consistent period of the season, five wins in a row over Norths, Gordon, Souths, Penrith, and in the return derby against the high-flying Marlins. Confidence was high and obviously, any win for the Rats over the Marlins is always one to be savoured?

“There was confidence there for sure and to come back from 21-3 down against the competition leaders showed a lot of spirit. But I think – and I’m an ex-Manly guy – that there’s still a bit of a feeling at Warringah that if you beat Manly, you’ve had a good season, and we’ve got to get rid of that. We lost the next week and I think it was Dave Feltscheer who told me the club hadn’t backed up a win against Manly with another the following week for a long time, and that’s something that’s also got to be addressed.”

You lost the last two matches of the regular season against Uni and Eastwood to finish 5th and earn a return fixture at TG Millner the following week in the finals. Despite coming up short in both games to the eventual champions, there were plenty of signs to suggest that this team isn’t far off at all?

“We were very confident after that final round performance and some of the guys were saying that Eastwood were coming off the field thankful they’d got through it and that gave us a lot of confidence going into the Qualifying Final against them the following week. I know they were far more experienced in playing finals football than we are but we thought that if we could get off to a good start, we could trouble them. Unfortunately, they got a couple of tries on us early and we scored a length-of-the-field try to get back in it but they finished it off with a couple of penalties and that was that.”

Was that end to the season a realistic appraisal of where this side is at – just shy of being genuine challengers?

“I know we gave them a scare and I know they were worried about us, which is a sign of respect for the team. But we’ve got to jump up to the next notch in order to beat these guys rather than just give them a scare. We just don’t have that finals experience yet that you get from guys like Hugh Perrett or Ben Batger but that’ll come the more often we’re involved.”

You told Rugby News before a ball was kicked that, while you had one of the most talented backlines in the competition, “…if you’ve got a good defensive structure, it can be easy to play against because you can push it side to side so we’ve got to be able to adapt to different defensive structures. We played a little bit too much of one style last year.” Do you think you achieved that variety in attack?

“Yes, I think we did adapt to that. We stopped playing as lateral and put a bit more kicking in than we had done the previous year and that wasn’t just for the sake of it, it was to either turn defences around or put it in areas where we could compete to get the ball back. At the beginning of the year, Dave Feltscheer and Hamish Angus were a bit quiet by their standards, they weren’t playing with a lot of confidence. We’d had a really good Sevens campaign in pre-season and they’d both played really well as a part of that, but they brought a bit of that Sevens mentality into the Shute Shield early on and we were a bit less disciplined as a result. When they got comfortable again, and started to play to the levels we know they have, the whole team picked up off the back of that.”

Rory O’Connor’s dazzling debut season for the Rats earned him the ‘Best & Fairest’ Award and a training contract with Munster – Photo: Karen Watson

The forwards lifted their game from previous seasons but I think it is still an area of perceived weakness by the better sides, particularly the scrum. Is that fair?

“The forwards were pretty good all year and I think we improved as a pack but when it got to the business end of the season, other teams were able to put pressure on us at scrum time and we didn’t have a lot of height at the lineout so we had our limitations. I’d have given anything to have a couple of big, brutal second rowers with lots of height. We basically played the whole year with three front rowers and five back rowers and that’s just the way it is, we seem to struggle to breed big, tall blokes on the peninsular. We tried to work with them as best as could be but the better teams worked it out and made us pay.”

Looking across the club – there were 5th, 6th and 8th place finishes in the lower grades respectively but all three colts sides finished in the bottom two. Are there concerns for the future at the Rats if that trend continues?

“There are some concerns and the club has been going hard at recruiting some good lower grade and colts coaches, and good young players to build the depth. A lot of this comes off the back of how well 1st Grade performs and we’ve gone pretty well in the off-season and I think we’re going to be stronger this year. We’re finding it hard to compete with the likes of Randwick and Uni who can offer associated university scholarships and I think Norths have done something with UTS and Gordon have got something going too, and that’s great. Unfortunately, there doesn’t happen to be a major educational institute on the Northern beaches except for maybe the Steyne Hotel!

“When talented local kids come through, it’s usually a choice for them between Manly or Warringah. Manly have been having more success lately and their colts were successful last year, and young players do tend to go to where they think they’re going have more success. We’ve just got to show the kids that we’ve got a great facility up at Rat Park, we’ve got a gym on site and a physio at the ground and we train there as well so it’s all in the one place and a lot of clubs don’t get that option. It’s a nice area and a good community club and they make you feel welcome. I think we’re going in the right direction and the future is strong.”

Player/s of the Year?

“Rory O’Connor won our best and fairest for 1st Grade. He came from Manly and started in 2nd Grade but when one of our 1st Grade props got injured, he stepped in and never lost his place for the rest of the year. Guys like James Cunningham were super consistent, he played well in every game; Sam Ward gave us a real boost as always; Josh Holmes got better as the year went on and in Sam Crompton and Boyd Killingworth we had two great options at openside.”

Rookie/s of the Year?

“It was Rory’s first year with us so I guess he’d had have to be in the mix for that one again but Tyson Davis also had a good year and then went off to Italy with the Aussie U20s. They were probably our two new standouts.”

Most Improved Player of the Year?

“I reckon Josh Gillard, he was outstanding before he got that injury. Jamie Forbes came into the team when we had a few injuries and played well but I think in terms of improvement, I’d have to say Josh. He certainly surprised me because he played 2nd Grade for most of the previous year and I thought he may be a fringe player for 1st Grade in 2015 but he was our best back for quite a while until he got injured.”

Players who have been rewarded at the next level:

Boyd Killingworth (North Harbour Rays, NRC & Aussie Sevens); James Cunningham (North Harbour Rays, NRC & Hong Kong); Sam Ward (North Harbour Rays, NRC & Piacenza Lions, Italy); Wayne Borsak (North Harbour Rays, NRC & Club de Rugby El Salvador, Spain); Harry Jones (Sydney Stars, NRC & NSW Waratahs Training Squad); Rory O’Connor (North Harbour Rays, NRC & Munster Training Squad, Ireland); Michael Adams (North Harbour Rays, NRC); Hamish Angus (North Harbour Rays, NRC); Tyson Davis (North Harbour Rays, NRC); David Feltscheer (North Harbour Rays, NRC); Josh Holmes (North Harbour Rays, NRC); Luke Holmes (North Harbour Rays, NRC)