Hi Onka Family,
This is the President's update for April.
The season has well and truly started, with some great games played in the first round against Old Collegians and preparations being made for the next two weeks, which are home games against Barossa and Woodville. The Woodville game is also our Past Players’ Day so we’re hoping to see lots of our club legends down for the games – if you know any past players, please spread the word.
Our juniors had a great start to the season, with solid performances against Old Collegians and good player numbers.
Unfortunately, some of the other clubs are struggling with U16s and U18s numbers and have pulled their teams out of the competition (or merged). This would normally mean more Byes for those age groups, however we have been working with RUSA to ensure that our older juniors get games each week – more info to come through the coaches shortly, but rest assured we will make sure that our juniors get game time.
Seniors have had strong attendance and solid performance at training and on the field, and are looking forward to big games against Barossa this weekend.
Cameron Puplett and I have been working on weekly match reports that we will post up with match results each week – hopefully you saw the one for the Old Collegian’s game. Any feedback or suggestions for future reports are most welcome.
Off the field, the committee has been busy. The old Honour Boards, which were relocated to the player’s race last year, have now been covered with Perspex to protect them, and new Honour Boards for the club are expected next week – so keep an eye out for them, they look great! At the same time we are updating and replacing our sponsor signs at the front of the club.
The gear shed roller door has been ordered and we’re expecting it to be installed in around four weeks’ time. This will make getting equipment in and out of the shed much easier (and safer) and open up that area. We’ve also purchased more rope and poles to allow us to rope off both fields in line with RUSA regulations – please stay outside of the roped areas on game day.
We are looking at some upgrades to fridge space for both the canteen and the BBQ, which will make buying and prepping food and drinks for Thursdays and Saturdays a lot easier.
We had a power issue last Thursday night (2 April), which caused the club to be shut down early. The Power company have repaired the fault, and we now have all the fridges and cool-rooms up and running. Thanks to members who stored the food in their home freezers until we could get the canteen up and running again.
The club website has now been updated with all the current news, as well as fixtures, coaching lists and other details.
One thing that I feel is very important is to remember and respect the club history. As part of the working bee – we cleaned and sorted the old documents that were stored in the office, some from the very early days of the club. I have scanned over 800 files, including old newspaper articles, pictures, team lists, minutes etc and plan to purchase a club network hard-drive to store these on. I have also added a big section to the website on club history. Based on an original document by Colin Talbot (that I believe Matt Whitton added to), as well as some of the old documents, RUSA paperwork and other snippets I located, it captures the birth of the club including pictures, newspaper reports and other facts. Check it out at [https://www.onkarugby.com.au/club-history](https://www.onkarugby.com.au/club-history) and feel free to provide any feedback, updates or suggestions.
I am also intending on adding a section to the website on our named club awards with details on who they are named after as well as what the criteria are for winning them.
There was also a requirement put on us to update the club constitution to bring it in line with the Sports and Recreation templates and guidelines, which give it a more professional look. I have made these updates and hope to send the updated constitution out to the wider Onka club community for feedback. Once we are happy with it, I will call a Special General Meeting to get it approved. I have captured a list of all changes and mapping between the old and new to show how they line up. More on this shortly.
As always, if you have any questions, concerns or suggestions please message me or talk to me at the club.