A current senior player and well respected member of the Camels squad, Stephen Gillette was elected to the top job at the Cobar & District Rugby Union Club’s annual general meeting on Sunday at the clubhouse.
The meeting was well attended with 24 players, Old Boys, player’s partners and supporters present.
The president’s role was the only position contested at the meeting with Gillette beating Jarrod Marsden in a vote count.
Immediate past president Mal Harris (who didn’t put his hand up again for president) was returned to the committee as a vice president along with co-vice president Kevin Mitchell.
Penny Colwell took on the role of secretary and Maggie Wall was elected as the club’s new treasurer.
Drew Weaver volunteered for the registrar’s role and also took on the media officer’s and public officer’s duties.
Bryce Rixon took over the role of groundsman from Brad Lennon and Dale McLeod was elected as the club’s maintenance coordinator.
Ten others were elected to the general committee.
As one of his first duties as the new president, Gillette has called for the immediate advertising for a head coach to lead the Camels for the 2017 Western Plains competition.
Gillette said he is keen to get things moving and would like to be able to appoint the coach within the next few weeks so that pre-season fitness and training can commence.
Newly elected Cobar Senior Rugby League president Chris Deighton attended Sunday’s meeting and advised that the Cobar Roosters club would been keen to work with the Camels next season. Deighton said he was hopeful of reviving a charity game between the two codes next season and was also keen to discuss joint training sessions.
Cobar Rugby’s current coach John Barnes (who has expressed an interest in coaching again next season) advised the club has looked into purchasing a new scrum machine.
He reported that at the recent Western Plains Rugby AGM, the Cobar club had offered to host scrum training sessions to teach players of other Western Plains clubs how to scrum.
A number of Western Plains teams during the 2016 season had called for de-contested scrums when they came up against the Cobar side, saying their players did not have the capability to scrum properly.
Barnes said NSW Rugby was keen for Cobar to host four clinics next year prior to the 2017 Western Plains competition commencing.
In general business, it was suggested that sub committees should be formed to organise next year’s Howie’s Day game and also for the club’s 60 years celebrations in 2018.
In other Cobar Rugby Club news, one of the club’s new recruits, Wiaan Oosthuizen, who joined the Camels to contest the Mudgee Sevens competition last month, was selected to play with the Western Plains Under 17 team at the 2016 Rugby Sevens state championships at Coffs Harbour over the weekend.
The team was relatively inexperienced at 7’s rugby and had only had one training session together prior to the event to prepare.
The team was drawn against regions that had established 7’s rugby programs in place.
Despite the lack of experience the Western Plains side performed well, losing three of their four games played on the Saturday and then being relegated to the Bowl Finals for the Sunday draw. The event was eventually won by the Far Northern Beaches Zone.
