Presidents Report 2023

2023 proved to be a successful year for the club on and off the field. With our Premier 1, U21s and U85s teams, all having home semi finials helping to extend our home season.

Hosting the North Harbour NPC and FPC sides formal season launch and hosting the North Harbour 7s was an opportunity to show case our facilities. Both were great, well supported events and we thank the union for the opportunity to have hosted them.

Senior Rugby

Chris Smylie and his team did a great job, getting our Premier I side through to a home semi-final but fell a little short to Takapuna after a spirited come back.

After a difficult season for our Premier Development side, they finished the season strongly going down to Northcote in the quarter final.

Rob Cooney once again took the U85s to a final but once again fell at the last hurdle to a very good Takapuna side. A big thank you to Rob for all the work he has done with this team as he looks into retirement.

The big success story for 2023 was the appointment of Matt Howling and Rob Giteau as our U21 coaches. They brought together a great bunch of young talented rugby players and went through the season undefeated, beating Takapuna in a home final. Many of these players went on to represent North Harbour. A big congratulations to Cole Benson, being selected in the NZ U19 Development squad with an eye on the NZ U20s next season.

Our goal this season was to have a women’s 10 aside team playing in the competition. A lot of work was put in preseason but we just did not have the numbers to make it viable.

With great interest shown at the sevens in recent weeks we have a good platform for introducing a Women’s 10 aside team into the competition for 2024.

It is with great pleasure that we can announce our Premier coaches for 2024

Andew Slight will lead the coaching group supported by Vili Ma’fu, Aupiu Pritchard and Ray Niuia. Great to see these ex players giving back. Darren Hughes continues his role as Premier 1 Manager.

Bernie McCrea along with Charlton Cowley with take charge of our Premier Development side, Rob Gaitau and Matt Howling will be back to defend their U21 championship.

Congratulations to all our Massey players who went on to represent the club at higher honours (see attached list) especially Mark Telea putting himself and Massey RFC on the world stage.

Junior Rugby

Once again, we had a steady number of junior registrations of 350. We had 26 teams playing in the North Harbour competition with 5 of these being girls ripper teams. The feedback in this space is the younger girls teams want a tackle competition rather than ripper going forward.

Once again thanks to our Junior Committee, Coaches, Managers and Parents.

The big focus in the next 9 months is getting our Junior players to Kasuga Japan. With over 200 registrations this will be the biggest contingent we have taken to Japan. Fundraising is off to a great start with $90,000.00 already raised or pledged out of a goal of $200,000.00. Departure is August 17^th 2024 for eight nights.

The Club

This year with the help of grants from The Trusts Community Foundation and Silverlake we have been able to install an outside canopy over our kitchen servery window. The projector and screen have been replaced along with an upgrade of our sound system. In the coming months gas heating will be installed in the Harcourts Main Lounge and a heat pump in the Capones bar hopefully taking the chill off those cold wintery training nights.

We were lucky enough to win $30,000.00 of product and labour through Bunnings and have invested this into replacing the roof in the garden bar, upgrading the number 3 and 4 changing rooms, making them suitable for our women players and painting as required.

A huge thanks to Rhys Hogg who continues to apply for grants enabling us to keep our facility to a high standard.

Finance

It was good to see a healthy increase in profit from our bar and merchandise sales based on 2021 and 2022. Grants and sponsorship were well supported and enabled us to do the required repairs and maintenance over the year along with supporting our Premier sides.

Rugby expenses were up as we sort an initiative to provide meals to our senior teams on a Thursday night and Saturday home games. This has created a culture amongst the players and is something we do in return for the countless hours of training and travelling in this now professional environment while remaining amateur. We continue to seek support in this aera to offset the costs going forward.

Sponsorship

A massive thank you to our loyal sponsors who have continued to support the club over the years. Without you it would be a struggle.

Harcourts Northwest Realty

Easymoves

Tech 5

Duel Distribution

NZ Uniform

Along with our team, jersey and garden bar signage sponsors.

Life Members

To recognise the hard work and dedication of club members we established a working group to identify those people to be nominated as Life Members on a yearly basis. Thank you Gary Harfield for heading this group.

This year we have two very worthy nominees in Warren Flaunty and Garry Allen

In Closing

I would like to take this opportunity to thank our committee for all the hard work they have put in over the year. Robust debating and communication creates the best results for our club in the long term. Thank you.

As a club we are in good space but far from perfect. The next year will bring further improvements and initiatives to better the Champion Family Club we are today.

Thank you to everyone who has helped in some way over the season

Bring on 2024

Stuart Taylor

President

Massey Rugby Football and Sports Club

2023 Representative Players

Internationals

Mart Telea                                                      All Blacks

Cameron Suafoa                                             New Zealand 15

Ray Niuia                                                         Manu Samoa

Luke Eyre                                                         N Z Barbarians (Paper Team)

Super Rugby

Mark Telea                                                      Blues

Cameron Suafoa                                             Blues

Ray Niuia                                                         Mona Pasifika

North Harbour ITM Cup

Tevita Langi

Cameron Suafoa

Wallace Sititi

Siaosi Nginingini

Fatonga Paea

Ray Niuia

North Harbour Development

Phoenix Hunapo – Nofoa

Nadi Tulia

Joe Faumui

Victor Olaaiga

Phil Manako

North Harbour Colts

Cole Benson                                                    Penisiman Fihaki

Holden Tatana                                                  Regan Brown

Loa Latu                                                          Seleti Esau

Lomas Paialii                                                    Siolo Fruean

Malachai Auimatangi                                      Tony Tafa

North Harbour U18

Jarell Luafalealo

Ciel Fatiak

North Harbour U85s

Luke Eyre

Aidan Holloway

Chris Casey

Jeremaia Jale

Jaejae Paopao

David Aumua

Keegan Brown