The 2020 season was unprecedented in our 61 year history. Our committee and staff had to deal with many challenges that Covid-19 brought about.

I am proud of the way that we came together as a club to overcome the issues we faced to give our senior and junior teams at least some rugby this year, as well as injecting much needed funds to keep our club afloat.

Senior Rugby

Our lessons from last year proved that we needed to work harder to get our Premier players fitter and stronger. We started off-season strength and conditioning in October 2019 until December 2019. These core group of players worked incredibly hard in the gym and on the grass (and hills). When pre-season came along in January, these young players were fitter and stronger than they had ever been before and were eager to get the season underway.

With the start of the season delayed, then playing for seven weeks, then cancelled, all of our teams struggled to get any sort of momentum and consistency. It was certainly frustrating for everyone involved.

I’d like to thank the coaches, managers and players from our 6 senior sides - Premier 1, Premier 2, Under 21, Under 85, Senior 1^st and Presidents.

It would have been very easy to throw the towel in at the start of the season, but everyone stuck in there to support our club when we needed it most.

Congratulations to the below players who are representing the club at a higher level:

Ray Niuia                          Blues

Gerard Cowley-Tuioti         Blues, North Harbour

Mark Telea                       Blues, Tasman, All Black Trial (North v South match)

Xavier Cowley                   North Harbour

Walter Fafita                     North Harbour

Junior Rugby

A new initiative this year was to give all junior players Massey t-shirts. This was an effort to instil even more pride in our club and increase a sense of belonging. It certainly looks great seeing so many kids running around with Massey t-shirts on.

Overall playing numbers increased slightly on 2019. Our growth mainly coming from girls. We are really pleased to see that junior girls numbers have gone from 5 to 50 in the last few years. With growing trends around the country, I think this will continue to increase.

As usual, the junior committee did a fantastic job running the junior grades in a difficult year. Our annual club day was a massive success. This not only raises much needed funds for our club, it brings everyone together to enjoy celebrate a special club.

The Club

We had some big plans for our clubrooms in 2020. We applied for grants to replace our tables, chairs and leaners, upgrade the drainage and concrete path area around the shop, replace the carpet and replace our leaking roof. With over $200,000 worth of grants either in application, or just about to be applied for, along came Covid-19. All grants were subsequently cancelled by the various trusts we deal with.

Our focus shifted to emergency grant funding to cover wages (govt. wage subsidy) and essential utility costs through the lockdowns when we couldn’t operate.

I am hopeful that we can re-apply for maintenance funding in 2021, especially to replace our roof, which leaked earlier this year, causing extensive flooding inside the clubrooms.

Finance

Unsurprisingly bar sales, apparel sales and hall hires were down on 2019, we also lost one major sponsor and the Gaelic nationals tournament due to Covid-19. Despite this, overall profit was up from last year. There are a few reasons for this. We didn’t have Kasuga costs that we had last year. We received government wage subsidies and we didn’t have to pay North Harbour affiliation fees this year.

Our committee worked hard to reduce costs during lockdowns and to keep all outgoing costs to a minimum.

I feel that we are in a solid position to move into 2021, as long as we get a full season of rugby.

Sponsorship

Sponsorship is a major income factor, and I would like to thank them for their continued support, especially in these tough times.

Major Senior sponsors: Harcourts Northwest Realty, North Harbour Decorating and Tech 5, as well as our 22 jersey sponsors.

Major Junior Sponsors: Clarkson Electrical as well as minor sponsors Pipeline & Civil and Bunnings.

This year we introduced a new initiative with our garden bar signage. Thanks to the following who supported this: Write On Signs, National Mini Storage, Asics, Kennards Hire, Abbott Insurance, North Harbour Decorating and EasyMoves.

A final thanks to Lynmac Meats for supporting our raffles and fundraising efforts with very generous amounts of high quality meat products.

Closing

My first year as president was certainly challenging to say the least. I would like to thank both the senior and junior committees, who worked tirelessly to manage the 100+ volunteers and 600 members in 2020.

We have some exciting new ideas for 2021, so we hope that we don’t see the same disruptions that we had this year.

Rhys Hogg

President, Massey RFC

Article added: Friday 13 November 2020