I was asked last week: What makes a good junior rugby club? It was not something I have had to think about in the rush to survive this year. So my response here is open to challenge. Good rugby clubs seem to me to draw their life blood from three areas: committed players and coaches with an agreed approach to coaching a distinguishable brand of rugby; a healthy climate around the club; and good organisational support structures with quality leadership and management.
Commitment is something enduring and consistent. It is about constantly sending the message about working together in the true spirit of the game; about playing an agreed brand of rugby which distinguishes the club from the other 26 in the competition; and about coaches who are knowledgeable and constantly learning and analysing the game. Commitment is not the same as attitude. My image of attitude is the sweet crunch that a pack of forwards make when they hear the word ‘engage’; or when a back makes a last desperate attempt to stop an opponent crossing the try line (sorry, but I have to mention that other code of rugby with its Billy Slater stopping what would normally be a sure try).
A healthy climate is about a feeling good, about social networking among young people and parent members. It’s the social glue which holds members together; and it’s about volunteering one’s services and support when needed - the simple but often demanding things if left to one person: helping to set up fields on games days, serving in the canteen, being a linesman or a marshall, and a host of other important tasks.
And lastly, there is leadership and management. It doesn’t take an election or appointment to a position on a Management Committee to be a leader; everyone in the club needs to and can be a leader. Within the organisation of the club in 2010 the twelve members of your Management Committee (nothing too serious should be read into the number twelve) have scoured its registration lists, slashed unnecessary costs, proposed changes in its organisational structures and reorganised its financial procedures.
The above three elements make up what we might call ‘club culture’. If they don’t work sweetly together then a club loses its ’soul’. Come along to our Annual General Meeting on the 19th November (to be confirmed) to hear how Community Rugby at Norths Junior Eagles has been rejuvenated in 2010; and how you might participate in exciting new developments in 2011.
