Hi Onka family,
This is the president's report for November.
The 2026 season may be over, but we've still been busy, both on and off the field.
On-field, we just started our touch season, with the first week being a huge success. We had a big increase in the number of teams this year and the competition is looking great. It's also great to have the canteen and bar open again on Thursday nights.
Two weeks ago we had our Annual General Meeting, in which the new committee was voted in. There was a post earlier with the list of committee members. We have a large number of our members staying on for the 2026/27 period as well as some new members - so we hope to continue to move the club forward with a strong committee.
We are also looking at reforming our Junior Committee and Michael Jones, our new junior coordinator, has put out requests for anyone interested in joining. The junior committee is a great way to help the club and support our juniors.
At the AGM, we also approved our new constitution . This was a big task, with a rewrite of the existing constitution to match the new template required by the Department of Sports and Recreation. This puts us in a much better position to support the club and players. In addition we also put the guidelines in place for a new honour board (still to be named) to recognise those players from Onkas who have gone on to further their careers in professional or international competitions. There is a lot of work to identify the candidates and set it up, but its a great way for us to recognise those players.
Around the club, we have continued with repairs and upgrades. The ambulance entry chain has been replaced with a gate, the roller doors have been replaced and we have started on the remedy to the grassed area at the north end of the bottom pitch - allowing us to create a safe warmup area.
Last night, a small group of Onka delegates attended Parliament House for the inaugural Parliamentary Friends of Rugby meeting. This is a group of politicians that are working to raise awareness of Rugby Union around the upcoming World Cup. We were invited by Hon. Katrine Hildyard MP and Hon. Nat Cook.
Following the event, Nat Cook invited the Onkaparinga delegate into the House of Representatives where we were able to listen to some of the speeches about Remembrance Day. Nat also formally introduced us at the start of the session, which means that the name "Onkaparinga Rugby Club" and our attendance will now be a formal part of the Hansard (the official report of the debates of the parliament). This means that the club will be now searchable as a term in parliament records.
There's still plenty coming up as we move towards the end of year, with Touch Football continuing and the selection of coaches for next year hopefully finalized shortly. The senior teams have started pre-season fitness on Monday, with the Thirds due to start by the end of the month. We are also continuing our recruitment push and looking to bring in a few new players for the 2027 season.
So, busy times ahead, but it's looking good for 2027.
As always, if there are any questions, suggestions, comments or concerns feel free to message me, call me or catch me at the club.
Keir