by Brendan Bradford – 

Grand Final Coverage –

We’re excited to announce we’ll be awarding the first ever Rugby News Man of the Match Award immediately after the Shute Shield final. Selection panel and other details to follow…

Equally as exciting is the hard copy Grand Final edition of Rugby News which you can buy on the gate, just like the good old days. Look out for match and season previews, a grand final edition of The Rugby Shorts and the standout players of the season.

Paul Cook and I will be covering every game on Grand Final day, starting with Fourth Grade which kicks-off at 9:05. We’ll Tweet regular score updates from @RugbyNews1 and post match-reports online and on our Facebook page.

If you’re heading to the Bledisloe Cup, there are regular buses from Concord to ANZ but if you plan on hitting up Homebush for a few pre-match brews, they’ll be showing the Shute Shield Grand Final on a big screen.

Alternatively, The Rugby Club is also a great place to watch the game and they even have a bucking mechanical ball. Whatever that is.

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Team of the Year: The Wash-Up –

The emails, messages and texts started firing in pretty quickly.

“You picked who!?!”

“Where’s so-and-so?!?”

“Big call there…”

The reaction to the second annual Rugby News ‘Team of the Year,’ announced earlier this week, was huge. The responses and in a few cases, outrage, shows just how much people care about club rugby. It was great to see.

The team (http://bit.ly/1uJLcnb) was selected by a Rugby News panel consisting of Terry Smith, Jim Davis, Paul Cook, Felicity Nethery and myself after one of the best Shute Shield seasons in recent memory. Most people say it’s a fair team with maybe one or two surprise omissions, especially in the centres.

Firstly, how we chose the side. We each jotted down a team independently, then swapped notes, hit the phones and had a few beers to nut out the eventual squad. Take my word, there were a few arguments along the way.

Whether it’s Ewen McKenzie selecting Kurtley Beale at flyhalf over Bernard Foley, Steve Hansen trusting Ben Smith rather than Israel Dagg or the coach of the Inner West tiddly-winks team, a selector must, and should, explain their decisions – or non-decisions. So, here goes.

No Dane Chisholm? It was a tough one, but we stated from the outset that we wanted players who’d played a large chunk of the season. Unfortunately for Dane, he didn’t start in First Grade until Round 8. Even then, he was seriously considered on his point-scoring prowess alone. It was freakish.

Despite only starting midway through the comp, Chisholm racked up a ridiculous 191 regular season points and finished just one behind leading point-scorer, Hamish Angus. That’s an average of about 19-per match, or 37% of all the Marlins’ points in the games he played. It’s worth noting that Chisholm was a scoring machine in Second Grade as well and finished the year as the leading scorer in any grade with 267, including finals. He’s signed with the Rams and will surely go on to bigger and better things.

Some have questioned the selection of Josh Holmes at halfback, although for us it was unanimous. Matt Lucas and Mark Swanepoel were both impressive for the Marlins, but it’s the ‘both’ that lets them down. When Lucas picked up a knee injury midseason, ‘Swanny’ stepped in with ease, but neither of them played enough rugby to warrant selection. When contacted this week, Holmes says Mick Snowden, who we chose on the bench, had a great year and Swanepoel was excellent when he stepped in for Manly.

The all-Tom midfield. We hear Tom Carter is already second-guessing his retirement after being selected in the Team of the year. He had a stellar season for the Students, kicked a drop-goal (true story) and narrowly edged Tom Hill for the 12 jersey. We couldn’t leave Hill out altogether though, so we shifted him to outside-centre. He was all good with that.

“I didn’t mind it all, I was just ahppy to be in there,” Hill told The Rugby Shorts this week.

“I’ve played a fair bit of 13 so I’m comfortable there and I’ve actually played on the wing as well.”

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The Big Dance –

The Rugby Shorts conducted a quick survey of club rugby types ahead of the Grand Final and opinion is split, but weighs slightly towards Eastwood.

Most pundits fear Southern Districts’ pack at the set-piece – especially with Kane Douglas pushing in the scrum – but reckon Eastwood have the advantage elsewhere. Ben Volavola, Afa Pakalani and Jed Holloway are seen as the main Southern Districts threats, but the Woodies’ experience in big games is just as important.

As always, form is a big factor. The Rebels finished the regular season with just nine wins from 18 games but hit the finals with confidence and style. If they can maintain the intensity they’ve shown over the last two weeks, there’s no reason they can’t take the Shield back to Forshaw.

On the other hand, Eastwood have been consistently good the whole season and despite a last minute loss to Southern two weeks ago, should have the experience and class to claim a second title in four years.

The thought amoung many is that Southern Districts played their Grand Final last weekend against Uni. But that’s what everyone said after the Rebels upset the Woodies the week before.

Another consideration is the weather. If it’s dry, advantage Southern. If it’s wet, go with Eastwood. They won in terrible conditions against Uni in 2011 and have the discipline in the forward pack to grind out a win in the wet.

Clubland has spoken. Eastwood by a nose.