Joining a club

[SeanWF]

Hey
I was wondering on how i could go at joing a club.
always wanted to play.
im 21
how does it usualy work for new players?
is there try outs and if you are good enough you make it?
if anyone could explane how things work that would be a huge help
thanks

[Darren]

Club Trials start in late March but you probably want to contact them real soon. Most have many grades, so no matter your skill level, you'll have a good chance of gettinga run. Check HERE for club locations etc...

[Thequeerone]

Most clubs have started preseason training - so now is a good time to wander down - have a look in the back/sport pages of your local advertiser because a lot of clubs are doing small ads for registration days

- if you rock up to one club and don't like it - go further down the road - am guessing you will be made to feel real welcome whereever you land have fun

[frontrow]

What area do you live in mate, there are clubs both sides of the river, and usually they train as a group pre season, to see who has fitness initially, then work on skills and abilities prior to pre season...Now is the time to join up, and if you are new you can pick up a lot from everyone, including the better players, bcause once the season proper starts you will be located into a team and it'll be up to the coach and your team mates to teach you the skills required for the position you fit into...

[fulvio sammut]

SeanWF, here's how it works.

You turn up at any club with you boots in your kit bag at 6.15pm Tuesday or Thursday.

You introduce yourself to any slightly rotund older individual present who is not wearing training gear. He is invariably a committeeman.

He will be very interested in you at first, especially if you are of a reasonable size and build. He will ask you where you played before, and in what position, and how old you are.

When you tell him you haven't played before a look of mild disappointment will cloud his face, but he will invariably say "no problems" and will call over a mildly overweight cherubic fellow of about 40-50 years of age who he will introduce as the fourth grade Coach.

This individual will be your friend, mentor and protector for the duration of your stay at the club. Cherish him.

He will show you around the club facilities and then introduce you to about 4 of your future team mates.

There will be one tall one, about 30 years of age, with a broken front tooth and a perpetual grin on his face . There will be 2 short fat ones with cauliflower ears and squashed noses who despite appearances will be suprisingly articulate and intelligent. There will also be a skinny young fellow, about 30 kilos in weight who joined the club the week before.

These will be the core group of your teammates for the coming season.


I have now run out of time and will continue this edification process for you as soon as I am able. Return here often as I am a man of vast knowledge and experience in these matters as many will attest....

[Thequeerone]

comon tell him what the 30 year old will make him do after the frist away win -

[JediKnight]

Don't want to scare him off too early on, TQO!!!

[travelling_gerry]

stick with the forwards son...we teach you the more social aspects of the game

[blindsid3]

Establish early the beer etiquette for your club...

You should quickly understand the following:

1. Shoot the Boot (and the ramifications of its call if you still have your game boots on)

2. Left or right and has a switch been played?

3. Stacking

No one will actually tell you the answers to these age old questions until too late.

And what may apply at one club will be different at another.

So eyes wide and observe Grasshopper!

[jazza93]

lolol exactly wat fulvio sammut said.
if you do exactly that you will get in easy. just find the closest club to you. and rock up one on tues or thursday about 6 (half an hour before traning) than there will always be someone there

follow what fulvio said ull be fine

[fulvio sammut]

The Education of SeanWF (continued)

After your introduction to your new friends, you will be invited to take part in some fitness work.

This is a form of exercise which is calculated: A- to give the coach an opportunity to have a cigarette without setting a bad example for you , and,B-to tire you out to the extent that you will be too exhausted to give any thought as to what remote connection this might have to playing a ball sport.

At this time of the year fitness work will consist of a gentle 6 kilometre jog along a pre determined route which is explained to everyone but you.

After the first kilometre you will lose sight of the two jolly fat men who will have merged into the distant horizon at an alarming pace, and you will not have noticed Stretch, who will have let you start ahead of him and promptly
snuck behind a bush and then ambled back into the club bar for a reviver.

Meanwhile the 30 kilo weakling (also behind you ) will have collapsed with a dose of the vapours after the first hundred yards and be taken inside the nearest house by an elderly spinster who will call his mother to collect him.

That will leave you free to continue jogging for an indeterminate period of time (usually about an hour) until it dawns on you that you are hopelesly lost
and you ask a man who is watering his lawn in the gloom the way back.

An hour and a half later you will arrive back at the club grounds to discover the coach and the two jolly fat men are in the changing room sharing a carton purchased with last year's team funds.

Stretch will be in the club house, in an advanced state of intoxication, arguing the merits of the Wallabies with an equally inebriated gentleman of unbelievable girth who apparently is of the opinion "thet the All Blecks will pley Sowd Efrica' in the world cup final.

At about this time you will hear a telephone ring, and will be told a garbled message to the effect that the weakling's mother has called to say that she has now returned home with him from the hospital and that he will be at training on Thursday without fail...

From here on your conversion into a rugby player will take a more serious turn, but that will have to wait until next time.

[blindsid3]

This sounds like my first week at Sydney Uni...and at Briars...and in Canberra...

What you have failed to mention (at least this would be the case on the East Coast and no doubt will, one day, here) is that those jolly rotund men with the carton of bear were invariably:

former Waratahs / Other Super14 franchise, Wallabies or coaching staff of same (e.g. Dave Brockhoff at Sydney Uni and watch out for Wobber in this role in about 5 years)

or

played hundreds of first grade games for Eastwood / Parramatta / West Harbour before retiring and playing out the rest of their lives in 5th grade (he was in his sixties and and had over 700 grade games, but for the life of me can't remember his name )...

and it won't be until 2/3rds of the way through your second season with the club that you actually find out who they are when you read about it in the press...

[frontrow]

played hundreds of first grade games for Eastwood / Parramatta / West Harbour before retiring and playing out the rest of their lives in 5th grade (he was in his sixties and and had over 700 grade games, but for the life of me can't remember his name )...

Sounds remarkably like Gary Mickle, except on the east coast...

[SeanWF]

Thanks a lot.
I especially liked falvio's rant, good stuff.
I’m in High Wycombe and used to live in Lesmurdie so I’m looking at Kalamunda.
Fitness will be number 1.
Looking forward to having a go

[frontrow]

The Bulls, have fun mate...Some good people in the hills...