2014 Season Preview: Randwick

by Paul Cook –

If 2012 was a year to forget in Randwick’s illustrious history, 2013 was about picking themselves off the floor, dusting themselves off and putting in place the foundations that would see them return to their rightful seat on Australian club rugby’s top table.

Players left, new bloods were recruited and the coaching and backroom staff were overhauled, all under the auspices of incoming head coach, Wade Kelly. And while the results sheet at the end of the season didn’t necessarily reflect a dramatic turnaround in fortunes, 8th place on the ladder and defeat in the semi-finals to the 2012 runners-up Southern Districts, represented significant signs of improvement.

Giving a host of young talent it’s chance while playing an attractive brand of footy has meant the Galloping Greens are an exciting work in progress, and as Kelly told Rugby News recently, this season should see them take a few more steps towards achieving their long term goals…

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After the ‘annus horribilis’ of 2012, you guided the Wicks to the second week of the finals in your first year in charge. You must have been pleased with that progress?

“We probably ended up bang on where we thought we’d get. We thought top six, we ended up running 8th and that was with losing three games after the bell which would have lifted us up to 5th or 6th. Then, to get knocked out in the second week in the finals, yeah, it was pretty much where we thought we were going to be.”

Randwick coach Wade Kelly enters his second season in charge on a mission. “Top six. It’s anyone’s game from there.” – Photo: Jim Davis

Of course, turning around the club is not just about 1st grade, it’s about growing strength in depth throughout all grades and colts to build a stronger future – do you feel that was achieved?

“We were top four in every grade except 1st grade which was a huge result considering that the year before, the only thing that saved us in any grade was the competition being split into two conferences after nine rounds which gave us some easy games. There was a lot of work that went into it, it was probably the biggest pre-season they’ve ever had, which was a bit of a shock to a lot of the players but it was what was needed and it paid off.”

What have you found the hardest hurdle to overcome in taking on the challenge of restoring such a famous club to its former glories?

“To be honest, the off-field stuff. We had a fair clean-out in general where some people were made redundant and a lot of the coaching staff moved on and we made a lot of changes to the support staff as well and all that took a lot of time away from actually coaching. That was the biggest challenge I think and probably the one that I got sick of the most!”

The Wicks have established a link with the UNSW and installed a Director of Rugby in Nick Ryan who has an impressive track record of nurturing young talent. The club is obviously putting a long term plan in place?

“It’s pretty much common sense. You’ve got to build your club on juniors and then follow them right through to keep them in the club and we’ve gone and recruited heavily with the backing of the University of New South Wales at colts level. It’s a system that may take a few years to come through but then you hope it’s just a continuous production line similar to what Sydney University have done, which you have to admire.”

There’s a lot of buzz about the Wicks this year with talk of some impressive recruiting to add to a promising batch of young players. Is that buzz justified?

“There’s always buzz about every club in every sport in the off season, sometimes it’s just babble from the ‘buzz’ talkers. We lost a few top end guys we needed to replace, whilst we wait for our younger guys to mature. We haven’t paid top dollar to go out and get superstars, we’ve just recruited guys based on a number of different criteria. The number one thing is that they have to fit in to our culture and that means they can’t be expecting $5,000 or $10,000 to play here, we’re not paying anyone to play. We’re looking for guys that are ambitious or just want to play in a really good program to better themselves. We’ve been lucky enough to get a few guys that want to join us because they can see where we’re going, it’s not like we’ve gone out and signed every single best player we can find or anything like that.”

Getting those guys to come on board is a big tick for the culture you are fostering at the club?

“The guys who come in know that they’re going to get coached by John Muggleton, Stephen Hoiles, Matt Bowman and Jason Brewer, who are all specialists in their different fields with a lot of experience. Our training is run by Head of Physical Performance Matt Williams and they also have Glenn Pilcher, Mick Stevens and a rehab coach that works with them all the time, as well as physios, doctors, training kit and the supply of all their supplements so while we’re not giving them cash, we’re giving them a lot of value in resources.”

Randwick: Ins & Outs

There’s an earlier start to the competition this year, a couple of extra rounds and a six team finals series – are you happy with the changes?

“I don’t mind it. I think a top six is definitely the right move, we ran 8th last year but I don’t think we really deserved to be in the finals after losing more games than we won, that sort of defeats the purpose of having finals. Making the season 18 rounds on the bounce is fine, I don’t think byes are a huge thing the players will miss during the year. Bringing the competition forward brings its challenges logistically obviously but there’s no real drama for us on that front.”

The NRC arrives at the end of the year, what are the pros and cons of this competition for club rugby?

“Probably yet to be determined I would say. Talking to a couple of other coaches, we kind of agreed that all you can do is concentrate on the Shute Shield and on making it the best it can possibly be and it will eventually take care of itself after that but I don’t think the ramifications for the Shute Shield will be huge at all. It’s a tough comp to get off the ground and who knows, maybe we’ll revert back to the good old Shute Shield as the third tier before too long.”

With the Super Rugby final only two weeks before the Shute Shield grand final this year, those clubs with Super Rugby players will have less access to them depending on the relative success of each state. Can we expect a more level playing field across the regular season as a result?

“I think so, we should see probably a bit more consistency in selections with what you see throughout the year but that’s got its pros and cons as well. I don’t think you should punish players that are affiliated to certain clubs for having played at a higher level and as much as it’s tough to face a team that has Super Rugby players sitting on the bench, crowds want to go and see them. We played against Uni in the last round last year and we got quite a number of points put on us but it was also our highest gate of the year and our players got the experience of knowing what it’s like to play against Super Rugby players or even Wallabies and use it’s as a yardstick to measure themselves against where they want to be.”

Coach Wade Kelly expects ‘big things’ this season from new Waratahs recruit David Horwitz – Photo: SPA Images

What trends, if any, do you think we might see appearing in the way the game is played or approached by teams this year in regards to law interpretations – particularly at the breakdown?

“From the referees meeting we’ve had so far, I think you’ll get a real empathy from the referees on what you’re trying to do. Where the referee before was just looking at the laws of the game, now I think there will be a lot more understanding of what we’re trying to do so if you do have a dominant scrum or a dominant breakdown that will be reflected in how they judge a game. Whether you are trying to either speed up or slow down a game, I’m hoping for a lot more empathy from referee’s on both sides of how you want to play the game.

“The one rule that is an absolute basic but it’s killing the game is offside. I said to a couple of referee’s last year, ‘You’re allowing us as coaches to kill the game’ because we know that we can get away with 10 metres at lineouts and five metres at scrums and two metres out wide so if we’re offside and continually belting teams behind the gain line, the only option is to kick so you’re going to get a kicking game. You get us back onside and all of a sudden you can attack and have some confidence that you can actually retain possession.”

Players to watch out for in 2014?

“After his rookie year last year and signing full time with the Waratahs, I expect big things of David Horwitz this year. There’s not many 20-year-old 95kg no.10’s with vision, footwork, skill and toughness. When Dave plays I always think we are a chance of producing something special from anywhere on the park. Keep an eye on Andrew Kellaway too. It might be a year early but the kid is worth the gate money himself.”

What is a successful season for Randwick this year – finals footy again or do you have loftier ambitions?

 “Top six. It’s anyone’s game from there.”