PŌNEKE FOOTBALL CLUB: STILL PLAYING ADVANTAGE

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1 1 Poneke Football Club PO Box Kilbirnie, Wellington Telephone Facsimile PŌNEKE FOOTBALL CLUB: STILL PLAYING ADVANTAGE Kickoff We ve had a mixed season. We have big changes lined up. Make sure you have your say (see below). We ve also still got some great rugby including the Ruffnuts playing their final on Saturday, and a bunch of Pōneke players selected for higher honours who we need to celebrate. Pōneke the way forward Make sure you come to a key meeting about the way forward for Pōneke from 4.30pm to 6.00pm Sunday 25 August at the Clubrooms. The purpose is to discuss: lifting our rugby performance across the board getting more people more involved in the Pōneke community behind the scenes o stabilising our finances o modernising our clubrooms o getting our management right including changes to the Board A number of Pōneke people will be presenting, and discussion encouraged. The bar will be open. Recruitment Pōneke stalwart and senior player Tom Anderson is leading a big team to recruit new players. Make sure you share ideas with him or Misiluni, and all offers of help are welcome.

2 2 Coaches and managers Club Captain Mark Warrington is leading our senior club post-season review and the process for appointing coaches and managers for 2014, with a view to having the latter in place by early/mid-september. Poneke representing Congratulations to our players who have been selected for rep teams. In addition to the Great Dane in the All Blacks, Reggie Goodes and Charlie Ngatai are in the Lions, and Helena Lawrence, in her first year of rugby (playing wing/fullback in our women s team) has been selected for the Wellington Pride. The pride is all ours! Tauasosi Tuimavave is in the Wellington U20s, Presley Tufuga is in the Wellington Development team and also in the Wellington 7s training squad along with Faresa Tasele, Simon Tevita, Galu Taufale, and Greg Foe. Kenny Anderson, James Solomon, and Doug Jones are in the Wellington Maori, and Faresa Tasele, Simon Tevita, Samuel Tui, Hennie Tui, and Greg Foe are in the Wellington Samoans. Last month we listed junior players selected for Wellington City representative teams. Three U13 players, Finn McClure, Andrew Eng and Witana Sullivan, were selected to trial for the Under 13 Provincial Representative & Development Programme 2013, and Witana was chosen. Some of our representative players: Presley Tufuga, Wellington Development and Wellington 7s training squad; Greg Foe, Wellington 7s Training Squad and Wellington Samoans; Helena Lawrence, Wellington Pride; and Witana Sullivan, Under 13 Provincial Representative Rugby Get down to Kilbirnie to support the mighty Ruffnuts at 2.30pm this Saturday as they take on the MSP Internationals in a rematch of last year s Reserve Grade Div 1 Final when the Ruffnuts came second. This year, the Ruffnuts beat them in the round robin, and we re sure they ll do the same again on Saturday.

3 3 Some of the mighty Ruffnuts on 27 July after beating MSP (who beat us in the final last year) There s a feast of Pōneke rugby this weekend in fact, with the Reserve 2 team taking on Wests at Kilbirnie at 12.30pm, and the Pressies taking on Johnsonville at Kilbirnie at 2.30pm too. On Sunday, the Pōneke Pies take on the OBU Dead Antiques who play in the Reserve Grade 2 on Saturdays but who add some old guys (and Pōneke Colts coach John Jackson) - for an annual ding dong with the Pies for the Antique Pie Dish. Pōneke have never won the damn thing, but will this year. The Pōneke U11s came a creditable second (from four clubs) in the Richard Nichols Cup, failed to capture the trophy between Pōneke and Petone, but retained the Pōneke/Paremata-Plimmerton Cup after winning all bar one of the games between the U6s to the U13s. There is one junior traditional left, when Pōneke take on MSP on Sunday 1 September for the John Schaumkell Shield. The regular junior season finishes on Saturday 31 August, with junior prize giving on the afternoon of Sunday 1 September. There is still some junior rugby though, with a number of Pōneke junior girls featuring in the new provincial Wellington Whirlwind Girls U13 to U11 team playing a curtain raiser against a Manawatu girls team before the Women s Provincial clash between Taranaki and Manawatu in Palmerston North on Saturday 7 September, and again when Manawatu play the Wellington Pride on Saturday 14 September in Petone.

4 4 Pōneke has been instrumental in getting this team going to support our junior girls, and they are training at Pōneke in preparation for their home and away series. Social events The Pōneke in Auckland event was a roaring success, with guests including Ralph Caulton, and Pōneke stalwarts and Tight 5 members Duncan Garvie and Allen Shanks flying up for the occasion. The vintage game was a 35 all draw between the Poneke Pies and the College Rifles Crocs, and the Crocs are dead keen to visit Pōneke next year. Pōneke legend Jamie Wall, now living in Auckland, played for the Pies, later tweeting...those old blokes can still hit pretty hard.... Check out some photos of old blokes representing... Red and Black Night on Saturday 20 July was also a great success. Of course. Make sure you re there on Saturday 7 September for Senior Prizegiving. A new format is being developed this year, and it ll be a lot of fun. Pōneke Multicultural Rugby Festival Pōneke has a long history of welcoming players and supporters from migrant communities. In the early 1900s the Italian Calcinai family was one of the pillars of Pōneke, producing an All Black and many rep players. After WW2 Pōneke legend Lisle Shanks recruited new Greek migrants, one of whom, Bruce Blades, eventually become President of Pōneke. Fast forward to 2013 and Pōneke Hurricane Reggie Goodes migrated from South Africa, and this year we fielded players from Japan, China, Korea, India, Thailand, Somalia, Ethiopia, Nigeria, USA, France, as well as the UK and of course the Pacific Islands. By 2020, 1 in 5 NZers will be non-european and non-polynesian. Pōneke is going to be the home of the first ethnic All Black and the first ethnic Black Fern. We ve been working with the three Multicultural Councils in the Wellington region to promote rugby to migrant communities. The first initiative is the inaugural Multicultural Rugby Festival Poneke is hosting at Kilbirnie Park on Sunday 8 September (15 September a reserve day). It s going to be a noisy, colourful event. In this first year, we re starting with touch rugby, and we already have 12 teams entered, including a Filipino team and a Muslim team, as well as mixed teams from Upper Hutt, Lower Hutt, Porirua and Wellington. NZ Police and the WCC have also entered teams. Pōneke has entered a team too, although those players may also have coaching/leadership roles in the other teams as well.

5 5 The point is to recruit players for our regular season of course, and Pōneke is putting on three demonstration games of 7s: Colts vs senior players, women, and the U13s. The rugby will be great fun, but so will the music and ethnic food. There will be an award ceremony in the clubrooms after too. The event is alcohol free. Check out the flyer below and put it in your diary. AFL Pōneke is hosting an AFL event on the afternoon of Saturday 28 September. AFL 9s will be played (grounds to be confirmed) in two grades adults and teenagers from the early afternoon and the AFL Grand Final will be shown on the big screen in the clubrooms (buildup starts about 3.30pm). The Australian High Commission is helping to make sure all AFL supporters make Pōneke their home for a day. Come along and rark up some Aussies. There are strong links between Pōneke and AFL. James Terry, a Pōneke 1 st 5/8 th, is a current NZ Hawk, and one of our Colts coaches, John Jacko Jackson, has captained the Hawks. The local AFL team, the Eastern Suburbs Bulldogs, train on Kilbirnie Park. Support our Sponsors! Let s not forget to support our sponsors including Scotty s Potties, Cam s Carpentry Ltd, and: See you on the paddock... Last play Kevin Jenkins Chairman August 2013

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