27 Jul 2021

Southern Beaches Junior Rugby Club

Southern Beaches Junior Rugby Club was founded in 1995 by a few families looking to grow rugby in the eastern Lake Macquarie area. 27 years later they are still a family based club that feels like one big happy family. They are welcoming to new members and encourage new members to be involved in the club and feel part of it instantly.

Based in Gateshead, Southern Beaches have a great facility that they are proud of. Their home games are a special event and they welcome their competition to come and enjoy their ground.

With 175 registered junior players they currently field 9 teams in our HJRU including a full girls team in the under 13’s. They also fielded 2 girls teams in the summer competition this year in the u13s and u15s.

A culturally diverse club, they are currently looking at ways to celebrate this diversity throughout the club.

Pulling on a Southern Beaches jersey is meaningful to the players in many ways and especially that the club colours and logo represents the beauty and the history of the area. Their club colours – the gold represents the sands of their east Lake Macquarie beaches, the blue of ocean and the black of the coal that runs rich under their homes. Their club logo features a wave breaking behind a poppet head – a nod to the area’s history.

A new concept to the club this year is the introduction of Junior Club Captains.

This great initiative, emulating the club captain concept at a senior level, allows junior players to step up and create a link between the junior club’s committee and the junior club playing group.

The role of the Junior Club Captain is a combination of leadership and mentoring in support of the junior club committee guidelines. The Club Captain represents the views and presents ideas of the junior club players, contributing to the continued growth of the club from a player’s perspective.

Another great initiative started this year was their junior club volunteer program where players aged 13 and over were invited to contribute volunteer hours to the club and learn about all aspects of running a community club, in return for a reference from the club. Volunteers have learnt, among other things, how to run the canteen, how to set up and pack down the field and how to merchandise club stock. They have been supervised and mentored at all times and they have learnt great transferable skills, felt more connected to the club and have grown in confidence.

Great work Southern Beaches! It is impressive that you are thinking outside of the square and looking at opportunities to grow your players both on and off the field. Well done, and good luck for the rest of the season!

Southern Beaches Club Song
They cheered us from the grandstand,
They cheered us from the hill,
They cheered for Beaches rugby
and we gave the crowd a thrill.
We have a mighty forward pack
And talents in the backs
And when we throw the ball around
We slay them in their tracks.
Singing Beaches, Beaches,
Beaches rugby for me
Beaches, Beaches, Beaches
rugby for me
FOR ME!