Eastern Suburbs create history with six teams in Sydney rugby grand finals, look to break 55-year Shute Shield hoodoo
Eastern Suburbs almost went broke ten years ago. Now they’re ignoring decades of history, and social media barbs, as they aim to win the Shute Shield for the first time since 1969 writes JAMIE PANDARAM.
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THE last time Eastern Suburbs won the Shute Shield, man had just landed on the moon.
It was 1969, and the world was marvelling at human endeavour.
But there was to be no giant leap for the Beasts until 55 years later. In 2024, the club has managed to get an unprecedented six of seven teams into the Sydney club rugby grand finals to be played on Saturday.
Every single one of their five Shute Shield grades, and two of their three colts teams, are in the big dance.
It’s a stunning turnaround, particularly when just a decade ago the club was facing bankruptcy.
“Ten years or so ago, the club was in a bad way financially, we almost had to sell the clubhouse,” Easts president, Dr David Allen, said.
“It really would have been just a disaster. And so many Australian rugby clubs have gone that way, used to have great clubhouses, fallen on hard times and sold them.
“Fortunately a bunch of old boys passed around the hat and we kept the lights on.
“And then since then, we’ve basically rebuilt the place.
“There used to be this awful blue carpet in there, like an RSL from the 70s. And you’d never take your girlfriend in there, it wasn’t great.
“And then we said, ‘Right, let’s make it really family friendly, make it a really nice community vibe’.
“It’s gone from being open one or two days a week, to now open six days a week, and it’s become the beating heart of the local community, young, old, local.
“And that’s obviously great because it allows us to invest in the rugby program and coaches.
“Marco Rossi from the club’s major sponsor, Built, has also played an integral role in the rebuild.”
One of the first things Allen did when he took over three years ago was organise a meeting with Sydney University boss David Mortimer.
The Students became the most dominant club in Sydney rugby this century, and Allen wanted to know the secret.
“Sydney Uni had been relegated to second division, Dave came in and along with other presidents they just got the place on a great trajectory and became the dominant rugby powerhouse of the last 20 years,” Allen said.
“I went to meet with him and, you’d think someone from another club would be like, ‘I’m not talking to you’. But he was incredibly generous, and he said to me that a big part of what you need to do is getting the culture right.
“And, so culture and the under-20s, building that base of the pyramid, is key.
“Historically, and lots of teams even today, try and solve the problem for one year and bring players in from here, there and everywhere.
“We brought in a full-time under-20s coach, Pauli Taumoepeau, who went on to become assistant coach at the Waratahs, and invested in that, and that’s bearing fruit.
“If you look at the first grade team, today, there is, Teddy Wilson, son of Dave Wilson, he came to a straight out of school. Jack Bowen came to us straight out of school. Darby Lancaster, who scored three tries for us last weekend and is now a capped Wallaby, came to us straight out of school.
“Fergus Lee-Warner, same thing. Jack Grant. And even big Miles Amatosero, who went overseas and played in France, people said he was brought in here, but he played for Easts juniors.”
In the Shute Shield decider, Easts face Northern Suburbs at Leichhardt Oval.
Norths have their own motivation, having fallen 17-15 in last year’s grand final to Randwick.
But they did manage to win the title in 2016 under coach Simon Cron – who is now leading the Western Force – and are now under the guidance of coach Zak Beer.
Since Easts last won the Shute Shield, Uni, Randwick, Norths, Gordon, Parramatta, Manly, Eastwood and Warringah have all held the trophy aloft.
To end their 55-year drought, the task falls upon first year head coach Ben Batger.
Allen had seen Batger transition from Eastwood playing legend to rising coach, taking lower grade teams to the playoffs despite the area losing much player talent over recent seasons.
Batger has inspired a brilliant season, winning 14 of 18 regular season games.
However, it hasn’t been without controversy. Opponents threatened to boycott the annual Ken Catchpole Awards event after Easts were docked five competition points for breaching the player points system laws designed to keep the talent pool level across the competition.
Easts had submitted prop Vunipola Fifita as a one-point player in round 11 against Southern Districts – a game Easts won 40-31 – when he’d previously been listed as a 13-point player, having played more than five Tests for a tier two nation.
An independent review by Sydney Rugby Union imposed the points deduction and $100 fine.
“We went over the points cap for a single game and it was against a team that, without any disrespect, is right in the bottom of the competition, in a game that we were not in jeopardy of losing,” Allen said.
“And it was just a human error, which happens, especially at the grassroots level of the game.
“In the end, the Sydney Rugby Union decided to subtract five points. And we didn’t appeal that. We said ‘That’s within the rules’ and we moved on. Still, even with that five point deduction, we still were minor premiers.
“For me, there’s a great Wayne Bennett, quote, ‘If you listen to the people in the grandstand, it won’t be long before you sitting next to them’.
“So none of us in the club read any of the garbage on social media. It’s a funny thing, if you don’t read, it’s like it doesn’t exist.”
Easts club captain James Behringer, who starts at tighthead prop for the second grade team in their grand final against Manly, has been at the Beasts since 2016 and believes the record achievement of having six grand final teams will create long-lasting success.
“We’ve got Bondi Beach on our doorstep, which helps with bringing in overseas players to play in twos, threes, even fours, and also signing the big name players,” Behringer said.
“You build a winning, fun environment where you know it’s not all about the footy. I would say it’s maybe 60 per cent about footy, but the rest is all the friendships, the environment you can create.
“It’s an easygoing place, you can come and switch off whether you’re playing, whether you’re just training, whether you’re a manager running water.
“You just come down here and really enjoy it. So with that mindset around everyone down here, I think you can build a dynasty on that.”
There is certainly momentum.
Easts women’s team won last year’s premiership, leading to 11 of them being elevated to the Super W competition this year.
There will be a few Roosters players at Leichhardt Oval supporting the team on Saturday, including Angus Crichton and Billy Smith – who played for Easts as juniors.
The Chooks themselves are mounting a strong premiership campaign.
The last time Easts and the Roosters both won titles in the same year was in 1913, when the idea landing on the moon was a mere fairytale.
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Originally published as Eastern Suburbs create history with six teams in Sydney rugby grand finals, look to break 55-year Shute Shield hoodoo
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