CHAIRMAN’S REPORT 2019

Welcome to our 146^th AGM.  It’s been a memorable year for our great club.  There were pleasing results both on and off the field.  We faced numerous challenges beginning with the sudden catastrophic roof deterioration due to torrential rain last Christmas to the exciting Premier 2 Championship victory and the desperate Premier semi-final, contrasted by the sad loss of Life Member and Club hero, Neville Meek.

Paul Vegar said during his speech when a few years ago, we were celebrating with him as our longest serving Premier player since 1956:  “This honour belongs as much to my great mate Nev, as it does to myself.  I wouldn’t have a clue how many games I played, Nev counted all those 262 for me”.  Neville Meek not only gave our Club 63 years of service, he gave us the precious gift of our history and we will be eternally grateful to him and his loving family for supporting him in his passion for our Club.  We won’t see Club men of his ilk again.  He’s sure to be settled with a pint and checking us all out tonight.

We had no option but to immediately replace our roof back in January.  These were hectic times and we particularly thank Derek Armstrong, our Committee Member responsible for maintenance.  The poor old codger, with a crook shoulder, took his life in his hands clambering over our treacherous roof in appalling weather.  He then worked tirelessly in co-ordinating the contractors for asbestos removal and subsequent roof replacement.

We’ve had an on-going saga regarding the ceiling replacement, eventually the Committee decided to maintain the present “cathedral” type look you see above you.  Very apt, because there’s always a decent bunch of sanctimonious buggers hanging around in here.  We are following Iain McIntyre’s suggestion of installing an insulated wooden slat ceiling.  This will be done by Club member, Scott Cassidy’s company and our plan is to have it completed along with a seriously good sound system prior to the start of the 2020 season.  We’d also like to thank Rob Petersen who has advised us with first our roof and then our ceiling.

Thanks must also go to the Lion Foundation.  They contributed a significant amount to our roof replacement and we’re also hopeful they will help us to finish the job by assisting in the cost of the new ceiling.  The conservative management of our financial affairs over the years ensured we had the capability to navigate our way through the roof disaster so we are grateful to our Treasurer and Deputy Chair, Snow Hardy, along with our efficient Club Secretary and Women’s Rugby Co-ordinator, Karen Hoshek.

We’ve installed an extensive range of new equipment in our facility within our Beaconsfield Street building and we appreciate Brett Garea and Dean Rice’s enthusiasm and dedication that has ensured our players and the community, extending to Takapuna Grammar School, to benefit from a training Gym that is the envy of every club in the union.  Dean’s contribution not only to our Premier team but our whole community has been outstanding.  Long may it continue.

We also thank Gordon Stuart for co-ordinating our Seagull Luncheon.  Again it was a significant contributor but not as rewarding as in recent previous years.  Your Committee feels it’s important that we all realise that this iconic event benefits all of our members.  While it’s understandable that keen members replicate this iconic event with a desire to raise funds for worthwhile singular club projects, we must all be cautious that we don’t “kill the goose that lays the golden egg” by over-reaching our relatively small but generous and hopefully inexhaustible loyal market.  Our appreciation also goes to Heath Wildy, our caterer and his team.  Also to our cheerful bar manager Jamie Atkinson and his delightful gang, job well done.

Our financial results show a small deficit but reasonably strong financial position with no external debt.  Financial commitments for basic on-going costs and capital commitments including the new ceiling costs continue to provide funding challenges.  The costs for our club covering power, insurance, cleaning, player levies, administration etc. are around $170k each year.  This does not include the exceptional maintenance items and assumes the major costs for playing gear and equipment can continue to be covered from successful grant applications which are becoming increasingly unpredictable.

We thank our many committed and loyal sponsors.  Martin Cooper of Harcourts Cooper & Co, our leading contributor, has been fantastic to deal with and exceedingly generous over the last eight years.   Also Firth, who continue their support spanning 32 years.  There are a great many others including Harrisons in support of the Premiers but Gill and Gundry’s outstanding contributions to our Juniors over many years must be one of the most enduring sponsorships in our history.

The on-field results while not fulfilling all our aspirations, provided great excitement.  Our Senior First team won the Championship to become the greatest Championship winners in our union’s history.  Our Premiers suffered a heart-breaking extra time golden point loss to Northcote in a home semi-final.  But we can take some solace (perhaps like the All Blacks) that we were the only team to defeat the eventual Premier Championship winners, East Coast Bays.

James Little, Jacob Pierce and Sione Mafileo represented us at North Harbour and both Sione and Jacob are in the 2020 Blues squad.  Brad McNaughton, Mosese Pepa, Connor Hill and Fraser Conway all played for North Harbour B.  Both Mosese and Brad also featured in the Harbour squad.  Donald Coleman, who deserved representative honour, was awarded the Murray Jones Memorial Cup as Club Player of the Year, and the Champion Senior Firsts the coveted Napier Shield for Team of the Year.

We had 136 registered senior players with 20 coaches and management to assist them.  The increased interest in women’s rugby may be one answer to our dwindling senior numbers and this is already happening in our junior ranks.  27% of our 461 junior players are female so our overall numbers continue to grow.  Karen Hoshek did a great job co-ordinating a senior women’s sevens team and we registered 19 new players.  Hopefully there is enough interest from all clubs to enable a North Harbour 15 aside competition next season.  Thanks also to Iain McIntyre for his sponsorship support of the Women’s 7s.

Our Junior Sub-Committee did a great job to efficiently co-ordinate our inspiring young footballers and there are over 90 volunteers working hard to ensure that they all have a great time at North Shore.  Our Club appreciates the Junior contribution to our Club’s financial viability.  Our Club is in a great position with outstanding training and club facilities, a unique social atmosphere, strong financial backing and efficient administration.  Nevertheless, we are in peril.  There is a lack of young school leavers wanting to participate in our country’s national game and volunteers prepared to give up their time to coach them.  Rugby is working hard to make our game more appealing for our youth and to attract more volunteers.  If we cannot win this battle there will be a lot less clubs in the future that may only field juniors under the age of 11, have semi-professional premiers with salaried coaches and administrators and I’m sure that is not the amateur club rugby we all want.

MAX WEBB - CHAIRMAN

PROPOSED 2020 COMMITTEE

We farewell three long serving members.  Our President Brad Johnstone, Ross Iremonger and Iain McIntyre.  Brad gave us the benefit of five years of strong leadership.  Brad and Shore are synonymous.  It’s impossible to think of one without the other.  He’s given nothing but his best to our club throughout his life.  As a player, coach and administrator, we thank him and wish him well.  Another All Black and great Shore man, Buck Shelford will be our next Rangitira.  Both Ross and Iain have also served for many years and we thank them for their contribution.  Many clubs struggle to attract quality people willing to give up their time to serve on committees.  We don’t share that problem, we have a passionate group who relish a good debate.  We are mindful of the importance of introducing youth and we’re pleased that two well-known Shore players are joining us, Ben Browne and Dan Keeling.  In proof that we are not ageist Murray Brewer is also joining us.  Murray is a close club neighbour and a long term club supporter and is also co-manager of our Premiers.  Each committee member takes a leadership role in a particular area of our activities and they are always looking for assistance.

We nominate the following as our 2020 Committee:

President:                                      Wayne Shelford

Treasurer:                                      Snow Hardy

Club Captain:                                  Chris Tankard

Asst Club Captain:                           Grant Simpkins/150th

Union Delegate:                              Chris Tankard/Jo Pettifer

Junior Chairman:                             Brad Westgate

Women’s Rugby:                             Karen Hoshek

Members:

1. Derek Armstrong-Maintenance
2. Murray Brewer-Premiers/Sponsorship
3. Ben Browne-Communications/150th
4. Dan Keeling-Team liaison/Recruitment
5. Peter Burgess-100 Club/First XV
6. Jo Pettifer-Match day host/Special projects/150th
7. Gordon Stuart-Function co-ordinator/ Boot camp
8. Max Webb-Gear Steward/Major sponsors/150th