Grand final rugby testing family loyalties of Allambie Jets players
There’s 10 sets of parents, 20 children, three grand finals and around 40km and a couple of hours between the matches. Throw in a soccer grand final and it’s organised chaos for this club.
Manly
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WANTED: Super organised, enthusiastic, Olympic standard multi-taskers with rugby loving children and teens and a good GPS to navigate your way across suburban Sydney.
Throw in the ability to orchestrate a transport program with military precision and you will fit right in at the Allambie Jets.
An extraordinary 10 sets of parents will be split up on Sunday as they shuttle their footy loving kids to grand final matches at Hunters Hill, Hassall Grove and Carlingford.
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The families have at least two rugby enthusiasts each involved in grand finals being played to decide the Sydney Junior Rugby Union season.
And in some case it gets particular tricky.
Darron Price not only has sons Jaxon in the under 10s decider and Tyson in the under 12s, he is also coach of both teams.
Jaxon will be playing at Boronia Park, Hunters Hill, with a 12pm kickoff and Tyson will take the field at Kingsdene, Carlingford, with a 1pm kickoff.
Further complicating the matter is the fact his wife Julie has her soccer grand final the same day at Cromer on the northern beaches.
“I’ll be at the 10s game at the start, leave at halftime and hopefully get to Carlingford to watch the last part of the 12s game,’’ he said. “I just hope the traffic isn’t bad.
“My wife is playing from 12-1pm so she’s no chance. It’s unusual to get so many games at the same time.’’
Karyn Nixon is in a similar predicament as manager of both the under 10s and under 12s, with son Oscar playing at Boronia Park and Harry at Carlingford.
“It’s all a bit hectic but we wanted to encourage them both to play,’’ said Nixon, whose husband Dave will be at an opposite match.
“It seemed like a great idea at the start of the season. Now we are at the end, my goodness.
“I’m pretty much sending out emails, then wondering if I have sent them to the right team.
“It’s a little hard for Sunday. The 12s team won their grand final last year so I said to my oldest, ‘I’m sorry, I have to go with Oscar as it’s his first’.
“He is fine with that. He is a great with his little brother.’’
Dean Semmens’ loyalties are split even further with son Jett playing in the under 11s at Hassall Grove, roughly 40km from son Cooper’s match at Hunters Hill.
“My wife Jemma will go to Jett’s and I’ll go to Cooper’s. Hopefully they both get the job done,’’ he said.
“We have four kids so we are often scattered across the city.’’
Michelle Taylor is playing her soccer grand final with Nixon at the same time as sons Jay and Ryder are playing in their grand final.
“The mother guilt is terrible,’’ she said.
“But my husband (Jess) will be at one game and I’ve called in god parents and friends to be at the other. They boys get it.’’
Other families with sons in the grand-finals are Geoff Gill and Sarah McKay and sons Harry (under 12) and Jamie (under 10), Louise Sterndale Smith and Mike Weiner and sons Nate Sterndale Smith (under 12) and Ben Sterndale Smith (under 10), Sean Willey and Debbie McKell and sons Dane (under 12) and Curtis (under 10), Paul and Anne O’Sullivan and sons Harry and Zac (under 12s), Brad and Josie Ruddock and sons Leo (under 10) and Nathan (under 11) and Ryan and Liv Oldfield and sons Michael (under 10) and Sifa (Under 11).