It was great to finally see the end of restrictions to sports from COVID, and it was with great anticipation that we “Returned to Normal” for the 2022 Rugby Season. It was frustrating that the weather then became our disrupting influence and created so many headaches and missed opportunities to train or play, but our players and coaches showed a lot of resilience and dealt with disruption, rescheduling and cancellations to make the most of each chance to get on the field.
It was also fantastic to launch our Girls 7s rugby program across multiple age groups to compete in the three waves of the SJRU Rugby 7s competition. The SJRU has been working on improving the gala style format of the 7s competition and feedback so far is that the changes are really positive and delivering great gameday experience for the players and parents.
2022 saw significant growth in our club membership, to just below 350 registered players across our Minis, Juniors and Girls programs. This is a significant achievement in the context of competition from other codes and shows that Rugby in our district and geographic area can be as strong as make it as a community.
Dural Rugby Club is now one of the larger junior rugby clubs in Sydney, which allows us to be more inclusive and open the game up to everyone who wants to play, offering multiple teams at most age groups. In 2023 we will be placing more emphasis on expanding our Minis participation, so that we grow and maintain a solid base for our club, and help more and more young players take the learning journey from modified rugby through to the full rugby experience in Winter 15 a side.
Off the field we’ve also been busy in 2022.
We’ve had an incredibly strong response to our call for club sponsors and you will have seen this reflected on our playing and training gear in 2022. Our sponsors are mentioned below, and we wanted to point out how important the role of our sponsors is.
Through the generosity of our sponsors we have in 2022;
- Refreshed our playing jerseys for the next few years, with a modern design and of very high quality.
- Subsidised our 2022 training tee, again in a modern and high-quality shirt from Gilbert Rugby,
- Replaced our team training resources for every team in the club, such as balls and bibs and other items required by coaching volunteers.
- Ordered a new Scoreboard for our club, which will arrive before the 2023 season commences, and will enhance the experience of playing at Dural Rugby Park.
- Covered the significant shortfall between what the club receives from registration fees (after insurance and competition fees) and what the council charges the club to train and play at Dural Park.
We would ask that you would try and consider the sponsors that support our club when you are looking for services and goods that they provide. Many of them are club members themselves and part of our Rugby Community.
Another major of field activity has been our clubhouse redevelopment program, which is finally entering its implementation phase.
The clubhouse redevelopment was facilitated some years ago through the Federal Government awarding Dural Rugby a grant to perform capital works at the clubhouse. Aligning Federal and Local government expectations plus the implications of Covid have caused a multiyear delay to this work, and countless hour have been spent by some dedicated committee members to navigate the requirements of the federal government grant, managing expectations and requirements with Hornsby Council, and liaising with architects and builders to plan, budget and prepare the project. Special thanks to Julian Leeser and his office for assisting us with managing the moving target of Covid delays, cost and scope changes and generally supporting us during this project.
The final proposal now approved by Hornsby Council will significantly improve our canteen operations, provide additional undercover protection for our spectators, and greatly enhance the storage and therefore changeroom amenities and “useability” of Dural Park. Construction is targeted to commence in Q1 2023 and will be planned to minimise disruption to our rugby program.
Work is well under way to prepare for the 2023 season across our various formats and we are looking forward to welcoming new players as well as our returning ones for our various pre-season activities in January and February.
In January 2023 we will launch our new website, WWW.DURAL.RUGBY and we will be trying our best to communicate and inform you in the build up to, and during the new season through our web, email and social media channels.
Don’t forget – Try Rugby is on January 23rd this year and we would encourage you to ask a friend along who may be new to Rugby.
