21 September 2007 By Graham Croker
Sydney University Football Club is mounting a strong case to play in the Australian Rugby Championship as a stand-alone team, club president David Mortimer told the annual Awards Night gathering at Tattersalls on Saturday.
Mr Mortimer said the club had won five of the seven titles on offer in the premier division of Sydney club rugby union, including the three Colts titles, for 2007.
He said every grade had contested the finals for the fourth year in a row, SUFC had won the Colts Club Championship and the Club Championship and remained unbeaten in First Grade at University Oval for three seasons.
“Sydney University Football Club is not against a national competition,” he said. “The Australian Rugby Championship (ARC) has TV-friendly grounds, is well advertised and has nine-camera coverage of games.
“But we are providing 29 players to five of the eight ARC teams. We believe we have the right to participate in our own right.”
Mr Mortimer said Sydney University has an excellent athletes program, a strong coaching panel, a rugby foundation and strong administration to step up to the next level. “We are pleased Australian Rugby Union chief executive John O’Neill has said the ARU will be reviewing the ARC structure at the end of the season,” Mr Mortimer said. “We are hoping to participate on our own.”
Five-eighth Daniel Halangahu and hooker Daniel Lewinski won the best back and best forward awards in First Grade for 2007. Halangahu was also the leading pointscorer in First Grade, while inside-centre Tom Carter was the leading tryscorer.
“What a season it has been,” Mr Mortimer said. “We won five of the seven premierships, including the three Colts titles. We also won all of the Colts titles in 2003 when there were four teams contesting competitions. Winning five premierships this year is a credit to all.
“And we’ve done this while losing 29 players to ARC, which has put enormous pressure on all grades. Despite that, all teams contested finals for the fourth year in a row and to do that we have to thank our players, coaches, physiotherapists, doctors, medical partners and volunteers.”
Mr Mortimer said his motivation for taking on the role of president was the culture of the club and the quality of the people involved. “We’re helping young men and women who make up the club to go forward,” he said.
“One of the great moments this year was the return of some veterans for the Trevor Allan Cup to help protect our unbeaten home record at University Oval,” he said. “We invited some former players to help reduce the impact on the lower grades when the Trevor Allan Cup began.”
The president said other special occasions during 2007 were the Finals Lunch, the Firsts playing in a special jersey featuring a pink stripe to help raise $26,000 for breast cancer research, providing 29 players to ARC, inviting former players to present First Grade jerseys before home matches, accepting the new Dick Tooth-Steve Cutler trophy for matches against Gordon, winning the Australian Club Championship over West Bulldogs from Brisbane, Second Grade Colts grand final win after playing 50 minutes with 14 men, and First Grade’s win over Eastern Suburbs for the Tooheys New Shute Shield.
On the down side, he said the Firsts lost the opening competition match of the season to Norths – a week after winning the Australian Club Championship – but we didn’t lose again.
And he issued a warning. “The club competition structure is different for all teams now and grassroots rugby is at the crossroads,’’ he said. “I doubt if many clubs can survive another one like this one.”
Award winners for 20071st XV Best Back 2007
Daniel Halangahu 1st XV Best Forward 2007
Daniel Lewinski 1st XV Leading Points Scorer 2007
Daniel Halangahu 1st XV Leading Try Scorer 2007
Tom Carter 2nd XV Best Forward 2007
Jonathon Jenkins 2nd XV Best Back 2007
Nathan Sievert 3rd XV Best Forward 2007
John Smith 3rd XV Best Back 2007
Grant Mataira 4th XV Best Forward 2007
Hugh Caldwell 4th XV Best Back 2007
Brian Green 5th XV Best Forward 2007
Ian Cook 5th XV Best Back 2007
James Gordon 1st Colts XV Best Forward 2007
Nathan Charles 1st Colts XV Best Back 2007
Matt Schwager The ABN AMRO Award for Best and Fairest Colts 2007
Ben McCalman 2nd Colts XV Best Forward 2007
James Daley 2nd Colts XV Best Back 2007
Angus Watson U19 Colts XV Best Forward 2007
Jordan Brown 3rd Colts XV Best Back 2007
Nick Phipps | Craig Fear Encouragement AwardsEncouragement Award (Grade) 2007
Pauliasi Taumoepeau Encouragement Award (Colts) 2007
James McMahon Achievement AwardsMost Improved (Grade) 2007
Jerry Yanuyanutawa Most Improved (Colts) 2007
Jacob Taylor Most Promising Colt 2007
Adam Campbell 1st Colts XV Best Fresher 2007
Barry F'amausili Player of the Finals 2007
Daniel Halangahu Major Club AwardsBest & Fairest 2007
Tim Davidson Clubman of the Year 2007
Jonathan Burnett Colts Clubman of the Year 2007
Ed Walgien & Masahiro Ando 2007 Club Captain
Tim Birch Volunteer of the Year 2007
Craig Fear Team of the Year 2007
First Grade Michael Griffin Cup
SUFC Players Player 2007
David Dennis |
