Issue

20/2014 30 July 14

SOLD OUT!

Tony Keach

DOVAGATE

ERUFC gratefully acknowledges the generosity of the

following Club Sponsors for Season

2014

Rats-Head Aluminium,

Preston

Lloyd Thomas TEL: 0417502710

Painting and Decorating Pty

Ltd

Principal Sponsors 2014/15

Senior Coordinater Oliver Reid is a professional trainer offering 45 minute $40 fitness sessions for club

parents and members every Monday evening from 7pm

So come down, get involved and get fit while your child is training!!

ERUFC TEAMS UP WITH ANZ

Eltham Rugby Club is now part of the ANZ Mortgage Introducer Program.

What does this mean for our club??

Each time Eltham Rugby club refers someone to Nick Newell at ANZ Mobile Lending, who then takes out and draws down a home loan, ANZ will pay ERUFC an upfront commission.

This is a fantastic opportunity for the club to raise revenue to improve our facilities, fund key projects and support the growth of the club for our members.

Whether it be refinancing, buying a new home or investment property, looking to build or renovate, please consider supporting Eltham Rugby Club and talk to Nick about your options.

For more information please contact Tim Adams at president@elthamrugby.com.au or Nick Newell on 0429 011 933 or nick.newell@anzmortgagesolutions.com

2014 Charity

Senior Player End of Season Awards Night

Saturday 23 Aug 6:30pm

Formal Attire

3 Course Dinner

Greensboro’ RSL

See Olly to book tables

U10 Photographs courtesy of Andy Brown Do you recall this message? …..please read this new one

Dear ERUFC Members

Community Rebels have asked clubs to remind all teams, coaches, managers and especially PARENTS of the following:

1. All players are to wear the correct (approved) uniform for their team - this includes shorts;

2. Coaches are not permitted on the fields during play (sad that people really need reminding??);

3. Parents ARE NOT permitted within the playing enclosure at any time until the match has ended and officials have left the field. This includes HALF TIME (again - parents should not need reminding, but obviously some do!);

Let the coaches and managers do their job. They are accredited, have Working With Children cards and have been selected for a reason. Well meaning parents should feel free to cheer positively!

Please ensure our club does the right thing all the time!

Thank-you very much

From the Rugby Director:

Ladies and Gentlemen. I have been aware of an incident of concern that occurred in a Junior game on the weekend of the 20th July An Eltham player was issued with a yellow card during the game and as he left the field he was 'high fived' by members of his family. Once in the sin bin the player was laughing and making light of the matter, a response that was clearly observed by opposition supporters and parents. A club official spoke with the people concerned and told them that their behaviour was unacceptable. I will not repeat what was said to the club official but it was not pleasant. I was shocked when I was told of the event. This behaviour is unacceptable from both our players and supporters and obviously does not support the 'Its positive or its pointless' approach that is supported by both Eltham and Rebels Community Rugby. We would be unimpressed if such behaviour was exhibited by an opposition player; there is just no place for this at Eltham or within rugby union.

Although Eltham is an all inclusive club please remember that the club can cancel or refuse your registration. Andrew 'Bully' Shaw Director of Rugby

U10 Photographs courtesy of Andy Brown

Sponsor Player Allocation

Experior Amir Samuels

Experior Sam Vettorelli

Trees R Us Riley Bain

Trees R Us Colm O'Mahony

Sheren Electrical Rick Murphy

Lachlan Yeats Joshua Guy

Heath Yeats Aaron Hall

Dovagate Nick Steel

Dovagate Alex Steel

The Shed Company Tony Keach

Knox City Sportsco Oliver Reid

Zen Fitness Personnel Training Marika Navuni

Adams Family Norton Fenton

Southwood Family Michael Wehipeihana

David Griffiths IT Services Isaac Haimona

Brent Hansen Dan Hall

Brent Hansen James Hansen

RFW Classic Cars Joshua Abrahams

David Griffiths I T Services Brad Graf

Vicki Ward (ALP Candidate for Eltham) Sam Judd

Manester Family Joshua Paver

RH Consulting (The Hurdle Family) Mark Southwood

Grafcon Christian Stander

Season 2014 Player Sponsors and other notices

Melbourne Rebels U20 registrations are NOW OPEN for season 2015. Trials will be held in October for all

players born after January 1 , 1995.

More details will be released as the trials come closer

The form can be found online at;

http://www.melbournerebels.com.au/community/competitions/2015-u20s-rego-form

U10 Photographs courtesy of Andy Brown Match Report: Eltham A Grade vs. Northerns 19 July 2014

Match Report A’s 19 July 2014

Northern vs Eltham, C H Sullivan Memorial Park

In the true spirit of Eltham teamwork...this match report was written by both Andrew "Bully" Shaw (first half) and Andy Gilbert (second half). Bully multitasked during the first half coaching and keeping notes for the match report. During that time, Andy was travelling across town after playing some low quality rugby with other guys in danger of breaking their hips as they desperately try to hang onto some last shred of belief that they can still play rugby.

First Half, by Andrew "Bully" Shaw

With a week off the A’s made the small trip to take on the big and physical Northern Panthers.

The weather gods appeared to be shining and although temperature had dropped the rain looked like it would stay away.

From the kick off the boys were pumped up, they turned the ball over early and began pressuring the Northern defence. From continued pressure and solid phases by the forwards the ball was spread wide to Marika who headed for the corner. As he grounded the ball the Touch Judge signalled that he had gone into touch before grounding the ball, from the coaches box it looked to close to call but the decision stood.

Eltham turned the ball over again and continued to build pressure. Several phases later the forwards crashed over but

was ruled to have been held up.

From the scrum the boys continued to apply pressure in the Northern 22. The play went right for several phases and then spun back left which saw same slick hands by the back line with several decoy runners this saw Keachy cross the line for the first try of the day, he successful slotted the conversion and Eltham were up 7-0.

From the kick off the game become an arm wrestle with both side giving away penalties and trying to gain the upper hand. Northern took advantage of their larger pack and set several driving mauls that gained them some big meters. From a penalty about 10 meters from the Eltham line Northern decided to set another

driving maul. This time they managed to crash over the try line. 7-5 Eltham.

The message to the team was to keep their composure and stick to the game plan.

Again the Eltham boys went on the attack and again began to build pressure and were camped in the Northern half. Another slick back line move saw Rick cross out wide, Keachy slotted the conversion 14-5.

The arm wrestle continue for the next 10 minutes until half time.

The half time break was a chance for the Eltham boys to have a quick break from the heavy workload that they had undertaking in the first half. The message from both Dan and Bully was to stick to the game that has worked for us all year. To get up quick off the line and run the big Northern Forwards around.

Second half by Andrew Gilbert:

The second half continued with more of the same...two teams intent on slugging it out and moving between the 22 m lines. Each team was up to the task defensively with big hits and hard rugby, good communication and excellent skills. After spending the afternoon playing geriatric rugby, it was nice to see the game the way it is supposed to be played. The tough stuff

U10 Photographs courtesy of Andy Brown Match Report: Eltham A Grade vs. Northerns 19 July 2014

continued with some excellent tackling from the smaller Eltham forwards...Sam demonstrated excellent technique mowing down multiple forwards and putting them on the deck effectively taking away their ability to maul. Colm demonstrated some hard running around the base and made

the larger Panther pack lift their work rate to stop the Eltham attacking style.

Northern was up to task and started to string together multiple phases mixing massive rolling mauls, with hard rucking and some opportunistic runs finding themselves deep in the Eltham half. As the

forwards worked to stop one of the mauls, Isaac worked his way through the traffic as the opposition #9 took way too long with the ball in hand. Isaac came from out of nowhere to rip the ball away quicker than a street kid snatching a tourist's wallet in a Phuket market. The chase was on Isaac streaked down the far side line with the Panther backs in chase as their bewildered forwards were still asking what happened... Isaac being the ultimate team player decided that running the entire 80 meters on his own might be a bit selfish. So he slowed just enough to draw the chasing Panther defence and once he set his trap he threw the no-look flick pass inside to Mike W. for the try pushing the lead out to 19-5.

This lit a fire under the good guys and the big hits came out with captain Dan H. leading the charge with bone-rattling shots, big Jim and Tony K. followed with some big hits of their own. I must mention here, that despite the level of intensity each team displayed grit and toughness while maintaining their composure. In a classy move after a huge collision

between a Northern Panther and an Eltham back, the opponent gave a quick check to see if our player, who came off the worse in the hit up, was okay. Good stuff, hard

rugby but in the spirit of the game. The game was in full swing and to Northern's credit, down two tries, they regrouped and came clawing back in the final 15 minutes. They used their size to bully their way down the pitch, keeping it tight and earning the hard yards. Twenty meters out they began grinding toward the line with an excellent maul. As they slowly churned their way forward, our boys were fighting to stem the tide. Olly was pinged for being off sides and the fine Sir deemed it a 'professional foul' and sent Olly to the naughty chair for a ten minute rest. One minute later, Isaac was sent to the bin for another penalty near the line. Eltham found themselves shorthanded for the final 9 minutes of the match. Northern promptly powered over the line to close the gap to 19-10. The home crowd was excited as they sensed the upset with the '16' to 13 man advantage with 8 minutes to go, down by just 9...Northern received the kick looking to steal the game. Instead, the E-town forwards stole the ball and Clint came weak side, off the ruck, and popped a beautiful pass to Rick. He shot through the gap using his electric pace to blaze the ball into the corner. The try sealed the victory, but the game serves an important reminder that Eltham has a target on it's back and we will take every team's very best shot over the duration of the season. It is essential to get every senior player out to training over the next few weeks to finish strong as we move into the finals.

Andrew Gilbert

U10 Photographs courtesy of Andy Brown Match Report: Eltham B Grade Vs. Ballarat 26 July 2014

Eltham B v. Ballarat

Susan Street, Eltham 26 July 2014

Eltham found themselves in an interesting spot today where their position on the ladder would not be affected no matter the outcome of the contest, but we needed to finish strong against the Ballarat boys who are last on the ladder. The game started with Eltham looking dangerous, but the low numbers at recent training sessions started to show soon after. Ballarat was able to pressure Eltham for several phases and took the early lead 3-0 on an easy penalty conversion. The rust showed minutes later when after a great break, with a sure try on order, the boys couldn't finish the play. The game went on this way for several minutes with teams trading possessions and Eltham missing multiple scoring chances.

It took about 20 minutes for the good guys to get going on the scoreboard. Willy straightened up close to the line and made the quick pass to Josh A, who used a great step and drew three much larger defenders, but fought through the tackle attempts to turn and present a perfect offload. Willy snatched the ball out of the air and dove over for try number one and the 5-3 lead. This play seemed to spark the men of Eltham and the forwards got in on the act by smashing Ballarat backwards in the scrum. Clint spun a huge pass (his passing created opportunities all day) to Willy who stepped his overmatched opposite number and offloaded to Azza for the try and the 10-3 lead.

Big Tommy Whitechurch got in on the act next with the quick tap from five metres out and questioned the resolve of the Ballarat pack as he punched his way over the line giving Eltham the 15-3 lead heading into the half. It must be mentioned that on this day Tommy was pound for pound the best player on the pitch (and that's saying something). The big man owned the set piece and tormented the Ballarat defence with hard, tough, yet nimble running from the front rower. This continued throughout not only this match but also his well-earned time with the A's.

After the halftime break, Eltham got right back to it with lightning quick Azza punishing a slow pass out wide with the intercept and converted his own try for the 22-3 score line just a few minutes in. Wasn't long before the good guys were pressuring the line and Mr. Whitechurch saw his opportunity for the brace, picked at back of the ruck and rolled toward the line pushing the pile just short of the stripe. However, the front rower showed off some discipline and when he realized he was just short by setting the perfect platform for George who ripped the ball and dove over for the 27-3 lead. The try was a thing of beauty for anyone who appreciates good,

tough hard-working forward play. Glad I wasn't a Ballarat forward on Saturday.

The forwards continued their hard work with Chris and Tasi getting into the act. Chris throttled a Ballarat second rower and offloaded to hard charging Tasi, who dummied the first guy and buried the second defender somewhere under the cricket pitch. In the pile up the E-town pack dove in and set a gorgeous platform. Quick ball from Clint made its way to Azza who stepped and fended the reeling Ballarat defence for the 34-3 score. The last Eltham try saw more great forward work. The work up front gave Willy time with ball in hand, he stepped the defence yet again drew in the centres and fired a ridiculously long, accurate pass to Harry for the final Eltham score 41 - 3. However, to Ballarat's credit they weren't done and fought to the final whistle as they smashed one over at the death for the 41-8 final score.

The boys will need an exceptional effort next week against a tough Maroondah side, but the opportunity is there. When we play to our ability and find the mongrel streak we can beat anyone in the competition, train hard this week and let's get to the grand final!

Five random observations from the B-grade match:

1) Tom Nixon helped the reputation of the English, yet again. The English are well-known for their gritty, salt of the earth toughness...oh wait, that's the Welsh. Rather, Tom brought his "I'm descended from royalty and don't want to get my jersey dirty" style off the bench this Saturday much to the delight of the locals in attendance. His first touch was 'stellar', his second was even more spectacular with a brilliant inside pass to the opposition and I probably shouldn't mention his third touch.

2) Pete M. had some exceptional work playing in the back row...on one play he back tracked to cover for the wing, caught the ball over his shoulder with just a few metres to the touch line and on a dead run was able to foot an incredible kick down the line pinning Ballarat deep in their own territory. 3) Willy and Clint...damn they're good.

4) Josh A. is probably the leading tackler on the team since Sean Adams had to miss four games while he suffered through his European holiday. Each of these guys have great tackling skills...keep up the good work.

5) Our front row in the B-grade was head and shoulders better than our opponents. Josh D. continued his tough, steady play as he does every week. Pierre was making his presence felt throughout the first half and Tasi and Tommy showed remarkable athletic skills for big men. It was a treat to watch the front row do such excellent work all game long.

Andrew Gilbert

B Grade Top Point

Scorers

U10 Photographs courtesy of Andy Brown League Tables

A Grade Top

Point Scorers

U10 Photographs courtesy of Andy Brown Match Report: Eltham A Grade Vs. Wyndham 26 July 2014

Eltham A v. Wyndham

This season has seemed to go on forever. Remember, week one with the beautiful weather down at Kiwi-Hawthorn? There has been one consistent theme through all the weeks and that is the boys have found different ways to win. Today represented our one of toughest tests. Numbers at training, injuries and travel schedules have made the hill a little steeper over the last few weeks and every team is now gunning for Eltham. They all want to be the one to knock us off. Wyndham came in looking to set the tone for next week's semi-final and they did just that from the opening whistle.

As usual, it was hard yards for each team as they lined up and ran right at one an-other. Wyndham, as they have demonstrated in the past, were up to the defen-sive effort. They have always defended us well and made their tackles giving us noth-ing easy over the season. This continued for several minutes until Wyndham had a chance to take an early lead with the penalty in front of the posts. To their credit, they kicked into the

corner proving that the game was on and they were playing to win. The rugby Gods (and some ordinary tackling) saw them rewarded for their efforts as the number 14 bounced over the line for the first score and the excellent Rhino kicker slotted the tough kick from the sideline. He is a weapon and we will need to keep that in mind next week, maintaining discipline will be essential.

Eltham would get on the board minutes later with Tony K. kicking the penalty, 3-7. The Rhinos quickly hit Eltham right in the mouth by using their size. They bullied the ball up the pitch eventually slamming over from just a few metres out. This stretched the lead to eleven points and quite possibly the

largest deficit we faced all season. We've been relying a bit on individual brilliance over the last few weeks to pull us out of trouble. The Rhinos played their game plan and made us chase the game, pos-sessed the ball and ground out the territorial advantage. Interestingly, it was a whole team effort to turn this game around. Tony kicked for terri-tory and pinned the bad guys near their own line. After a few phases, the forwards con-tested the scrum deep in Wyndham territory and with the bad platform the Rhinos struggled to get the ball out.

Young Brad G. flew down the line and charged down the kick, where Juddy (playing at #8) pounced on the loose ball for the try. This tightened the score before the half and pro-vided the needed momentum going into the break, 8-14.

The second stanza saw Eltham chasing the score, a situation that we have not faced throughout the season. Wyndham to their credit defended by any means necessary and were up to the challenge for the first several minutes of the half. They absorbed incredible pressure, but it eventually began to crack the Wyndham defence resulting in multiple infractions at the breakdown. As the penalties mounted for the opposition an interesting trend started to hap-pen...a Wyndham player would com-mit a penalty at the breakdown desperately trying to slow the attacks only to be carded by the Sir. In a test of wills Wyndham repeated the pen-alties and the ref-eree continued to send the bad guys to sit for ten minutes in the naughty chair. The cards were coming fast and furious. ...It is at this point, I must admit my notes got sketchier as the game grew on because I had two Kiwi's feeding me a constant flow of Dutch beer...cough, cough...Russ and Brent. However, after repeated attempts to break the line, Captain Dan H. was the last man with the ball as the Eltham forwards used the numbers advantage to manu-facture a hard-earned try. The conversion from the touch line just missed and Eltham remained on the wrong side of the ledger, 13-14 Rhinos clinging to the lead.

The good guys were in full-flight by this point and were asking lots of questions of the tiring Rhino de-fence and exhorting themselves to finish off the season and the minor premier-ship in style. Every player was playing with incredible inten-sity as Isaac slipped through defenders

U10 Photographs courtesy of Andy Brown Match Report: Eltham A Grade Vs. Wyndham 26 July 2014

and set the ruck. The forwards went on the attack with James getting into the action and showing off multiple 360 spin moves and running angry. The forwards were on the front foot and ol' Tom Whitechurch got into the act slam-ming the ball forward and showing lots of energy despite playing the entire B-match. The excellent forward work rate and intensity provided Aaron Hall the opportunity that every #9 loves...picked off the base from a few metres out and snuck it over the line for the first lead of the game, 18-14.

With the clock winding toward the 80 minute mark, the backs continued to pin the Rhinos deep in their own half waiting for them to make a mistake. Tony sent a kick deep and was bouncing slowly to the try line with good guys in chase. The Wyndham winger carried the ball out touch-in-goal giving E-town the 5m scrum. Another great effort up front, saw a strong push and Brad G. picked it and dotted the try. Tony banked in the conversion off the posts for the

25-14 lead. It looked as if Eltham had just sealed up the vic-tory. However, all the time stoppages for the multiple cards seemed to lengthen the match and the anxious fans grew uneasy as the Rhinos steamrolled their way into the try zone and tightened the game to 25-21 with apparently a few minutes to go (this score is different than what was posted on the Eltham page, but see earlier reference to Dutch beer). Mercifully, full time was finally called with fading light and nerve-wracked Eltham faithful.

Needless to say, the gauntlet has been thrown down and Wyndham will not be intimidated next weekend knowing they can compete, if their discipline is kept in check. Should be a compelling semi-final next weekend and I look forward to cheering on the good guys as I have done all season. Fans do your part to get down to the pitch this weekend and cheer on the home team.

Andrew Gilbert

Check out our Under 16s….they have just 4 competition rounds to go and are sitting comfortably at the top of the table. Hopefully another pennant for the clubroom ceiling!

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Dates for your diary:

Date Day Time Description Location Comment 1-Aug Fri Super 15 Final

2-Aug Sat

U6 away vs. Melbourne Green Boroondara RUC, John Gardiner

Reserve, Auburn Road, Hawthorne (Melways 59 F3)

U8 away vs. Boroondara

U10 away vs. B'dara/Nths

9:45 U12 home vs. Melb Blue ERUFC

10:40 U14 away vs. Footscray

Footscray RUC, Henry Turner South Reserve, Cnr Farnsworth Ave & My-ers Road, Footscray. (Melways 42C2)

10:40 U16 away vs. Harle-quins

Harlequins RUC., Ashwood Reserve, Power Ave., Ashwood (Melways 60

10:40 Easts U18 home vs En-deavour Hills

Box Hill RUC, RHL Sparks Reserve, Cnr Middlesborough and Canter-bury Roads, Box Hill. (melways 47 F12)

13:15

Senior B Grade Semi Finals

Maroondah RUC, Griff Hunt Re-serve, Lyons Road , Croydon North ( Melways 37 B7)

15:20 Senior A Grade Semi Finals

ERUFC

4-Aug Mon from 18:00

Training U10s, U12s, U16s

ERUFC U10s 6 to 7:15pm, U12s 6:30 to 8pm, U16s 6:30 to 7:30pm

5-Aug Tue

18:30 to 20:00

Senior & U18 Training ERUFC

Wed

18:30 to 19:30

Training U14s and U16s

7-Aug Thu

18:30 to 20:00

Senior, U8 & U6 Train-ing & Social Evening

ERUFC U8s 6 to 7pm

8-Aug Fri

18:30 to 21:30

Rugby 7s Coaching Course

Carlton North myrugby.rugby.com.au/myrugby/courses_listState.asp?state=VIC

9-Aug Sat

U6 home vs. Northerns

ERUFC

U8 home vs. Northerns

9:30 U10 home vs Maroon-dah

9:45 U12 away vs. Moorab-bin

Moorabbin RUC, Keys Road Re-serve, 90A Keys Road, Cheltenham

10:40 U14 home vs. Harle-quins ERUFC

10:40 U16 Bye

10:40 Easts U18 away vs. En-deavour Hills

Endeavour Hills, Frog Hollow Re-serve, David Collins Drive, Endeav-

Senior B Grade Prelim Finals

Harlequins RUC., Ashwood Reserve, Power Ave., Ashwood (Melways 60 H12)

Senior A Grade Prelim Finals

11-Aug Mon from 6pm

Training U10s, U12s, U16s

ERUFC U10s 6 to 7:15pm, U12s 6:30 to 8pm, U16s 6:30 to 7:30pm

12-Aug Tue 6:30 to 8pm Senior & U18 Training ERUFC

13-Aug Wed 6:30 to Training U14s and U16s