The Redbacks, now in their third year since a return to the Monaro/South Coast competition will commence pre-season training at the Rec Ground on Thursday February 7 at 6.30pm.

While the squad will be back in training early February, much work has been happening behind the scenes to support a successful campaign in 2019.

A new Head Coach has been appointed to help take the team to a new level on the back of the great work done by Nick Kemp through the 2018 season.

Anthony “Box” Hayes is an experienced and established coach from the Canberra Premier Division with senior coaching roles at Wests, Uni- Norths and more recently Gungahlin Eagles.

Box, who was an Australian Schoolboy and U21 prop, played for Norths in Canberra as well as stints with the ACT Kookaburra’s before being forced into retirement with a lingering neck injury.

Last season Box made a couple of guest appearances at Redbacks training to offer some guidance and technique to our scrum which resulted in the Redbacks boasting one of the strongest forward packs in the 2018 competition.

As Box was very impressed with the camaraderie and passion of the Redbacks squad and holding a genuine desire to help revive country rugby union, he agreed to lead the Redbacks into the 2019 competition. Nick Kemp will continue as assistant coach with Brendan Sly taking control of the backline.

Local livewire and Redbacks old boy George Sherriff has taken up the responsibility of Sponsorship Coordinator, one of the most important aspects of being able to run a successful rugby union club.

Without our valued sponsors there would be no club! George and the Redbacks will be looking at new initiatives to give value to our sponsors in return for support to the club, including individual player sponsorship and better acknowledgement at home games. The club is very keen to welcome new sponsors. Please expect a call from George very soon.

The Redbacks have been lucky in the offseason to recruit several new volunteers to support the catering at home games. One of the most important jobs on a cold Saturday afternoon at the Rec Ground is the turning of the sausages.

After a drawn-out recruitment process one of Braidwood’s most prolific and competent sausage turners was selected in the form of Lions legend John Corcoran. Additionally, the dates for the famous Redbacks wood raffles for 2019 are currently being negotiated and will be run by stalwart Tom Watson.

On the player front things are looking very good at this early stage of the campaign. The introduction of the Braidwood touch competition has shown itself to be a great means of recruiting for the local rugby union with several potential players showing interest for the upcoming season.

While the general core squad is quite experienced entering into their third year of the competition, they are still quite young, with many of them not yet 20.

However, under the leadership of the new coach the Redbacks are expecting big things from many of the younger lads this year including the likes of Ben Howard, Robbie Bell, Josh McNamara, Angus Sherriff and Harry and Will Shoemark.

As always, the young guys will be guided and supported by our array of older heads including Cade Graf, Billy Hatzis, Ben “coach” Elliot, Kiwi Hopkins, Luke Cummings, Leland Blyton, Nick Blackmore, Joel Jordon and Buzz McGlone.

A big loss to the 2019 season will be prop-come-second-rower Nathan Moffitt and Tom Watson. Nathan snuck away skiing last year and did his knee while the many years of playing injured has taken its toll on Tom’s body.

Both will still be very active members of the club and may even make the odd cameo appearance.

An exciting addition to the club this year will be the return to Braidwood of Jake and Tom Holland.

Sons of Redback’s legend Mark Holland and Braidwood legend Vanessa Bunn, Jake and Tom will be supporting the club this year both on and off the field.

Additionally, Luke Turner, who played several games last year, will also be recommitting for another season. The Redbacks are also hoping that a number of other Braidwood boys will be returning this year to support our road to the finals.

Additionally, one of the Redbacks’s newest sponsors Mona is owned by the ex-CEO of the Australian Rugby Union Bill Pulver who is now officially a Redback’s advocate and will be supporting the club through the 2019 season.

With the introduction of the new lights at the Rec Ground the Redbacks will be hoping to play at least three Friday night home games this season.

It is expected one of these will be against fierce rivals the Bungendore Mudchooks. Based on the success of last year’s final game against the Bateman’s Bay Boars where a crowd of nearly 200 local turned up, the club expects these night to be a huge success both on and off the field.

Juniors Update

Junior Redbacks U6 – U12 will be playing Friday nights in Goulburn as usual commencing in the middle of May.

Training will commence at the start of second term. Interested U13, U14 and U15 players have been invited to play with the Southern Tablelands out of Goulburn with Crookwell in the Canberra Junior Rugby competition.

Options also exist for U15 players to join with Batemans Bay to play in the ACTJRU comp. Coaches are invited for all age groups, coaching courses will be on offer early in the year. Please call Derek Tooth on 0408 430 739 for additional information.

Annual General Meeting

The Redback’s Annual General Meeting will be held at the Braidwood Serviceman’s Club on Wednesday Jan 30, 2019 at 7.00pm. All members are invited. Come along at 6.00pm prior to the meeting to update your membership. The AGM will be followed by the first committee meeting where all members are invited to stay and take part.

As always, the Redbacks would like to thank all our current sponsors including Landmark, Braidwood Community Bank, Pybar Mining and Nova Systems. A special mention goes to our major sponsor, the Braidwood Servicemens Club, where our great relationship will continue into 2019. We are hoping that a number of new sponsors with be jumping on board this year and will be announced in the coming months.

If you are interested in playing for the Redbacks in 2019 please be at the Braidwood Recreation Ground for commencement of pre-season training at 6.30pm Thursday February 7 to meet the coaching staff and players. Alternatively, you can call Nick on 0488 519 284. For all questions around sponsorship please call George on 0427 461 153.