The rookie coach and NRL stars that paved the way for Randwick’s 2023 Shute Shield win
Once the country’s most successful club, producing Wallabies captains George Gregan, Rocky Elsom, Phil Kearns and Ben Mowen, Randwick endured 20 years of pain. JAMIE PANDARAM goes inside the fall and rise of the Wicks.
They are now household NRL stars, but Cam Murray and Nat Butcher unknowingly played a crucial role in turning around Australia’s greatest club rugby team from perennial failures to fairytale makers.
After two decades of failure, which came on the heels of unprecedented success, the genesis of Randwick’s 2023 Shute Shield premiership was formed by kids determined to be fitter than their eastern suburbs rivals.
Under rookie head coach Stephen Hoiles and a group of young believers, Randwick defeated Northern Suburbs 17-15 in last year’s grand final to end a horror run for the glamour club.
The history
One of the pieces to how this unfolded can be traced to a drunken night in Brisbane in 2006 on a junior rugby tour – two years after their previous premiership victory.
On that evening, Mark Harrison, a jack-of-all-trades character, was somehow enticed to become president of Coogee Junior Rugby, setting him on a long journey in the game that culminated in him taking on the key leadership position at the Wicks and ultimately overseeing a Shute Shield win.
He’s bled green from a young age, but tore his ACL twice.
“I was on the playing scrap heap by 22,” Harrison said.
He’d later go on to be a well-respected junior coach, president of Randwick District Juniors, then became competition director of the Coogee Surf Club, and eventually wound up working in The Daily Telegraph newsroom.
But throughout that time, he witnessed the sad decline of his beloved club.
A club that won its first Shute Shield title in 1930.
But truly, it was in the 1970s, 80s and 90s that Randwick established themselves as the behemoth of the club scene, claiming 17 titles from 1971 to 1996 including six straight from 1987-92.
When Randwick defeated Eastwood 35-22 in the 2004 decider, nobody could have imagined what was to unfold for the famous club over the next 19 years.
“We grew up watching Randwick win the grand final every year, so it wasn’t even a second thought, you just knew you had to keep grand final day free, it was like New Year’s Eve,” Harrison said.
As year after year passed without another premiership, a degree of despondency in the local area crept in.
But one of the key components of the revival began 14 years ago with the formation of a pre-season training squad for the district’s best 10-to-13-year-olds, which became known as the Randwick Junior Academy.
At the first one there were a couple of talented young footballers; Murray and Butcher, who now play in the NRL for the Rabbitohs and Roosters respectively. Waratah Will Harrison, Mark’s son, was also there, as was Wallaby Ben Donaldson.
As the years went by, the boys’ numbers grew and then the girls began to join “the academy” – as it is simply known.
“In year one we had 60 kids, then a decade later there are over 350, with over 40 volunteer coaches, and it is all free,” Harrison said.
In the Shute Shield, it was the Sydney University era.
Hoiles was part of the Wicks’ teams which lost four out of five grand finals to the Students from 2006-10.
This kind of heartache was incomprehensible to a club that had produced the likes of David Campese, the Ella brothers, Simon Poidevin, Lloyd Walker, Owen Finegan, Ken Catchpole, Sir Nicholas Shehadie and Cyril Towers.
Those who have worn the green jersey with pride include former Wallabies captains George Gregan, Rocky Elsom, Phil Kearns and Ben Mowen.
Others include Matt Giteau, Chris Latham, Sekope Kepu, Drew Mitchell, Adam Freier, Matt Burke, Tony Daly and Mark Chisholm.
Among whose alumni include men who would go on to coach the Wallabies; Bob Dwyer, Eddie Jones, Ewen McKenzie and Michael Cheika.
How did it get to this?
From absolute excellence and dominance to two decades of capitulation and catastrophe.
The kids trying to stop themselves from vomiting while lumbering up and down the Wanda Sandhills or doing run swim runs at Clovelly Beach mimicked the club’s journey.
The Academy program is run by Stu Donaldson, father of Wallabies playmaker Ben, who played alongside Harrison when Randwick’s Colts won the 1984 premiership.
“It’s not about high performance, it’s about getting kids in green wanting to come down to Coogee Oval and be passionate about the club” Hoiles said.
On Wednesdays and Saturdays from October to February, youngsters would complete beach runs, climb the sand dunes at Wanda, and do push-ups until their arms gave out and they collapsed chest-first on the field at Latham Park.
“Eight of those kids from the first year of the academy were in our first-grade squad that won the grand final,” Hoiles said, beaming with pride.
The coach
As his time in the newsroom was coming to an end, Harrison was sounded out by Simon Poidevin and now president John Tuxworth to become Randwick’s general manager.
“When I was at News Corp, I’d just been on the Junior Wallabies tour in Argentina with Will, I had been helping them out with media, I’d worked with Poido in the juniors and he really encouraged me to do the job, and [former Australian under-20s coach] Adrian Thompson said ‘You’ll never forgive yourself if you don’t take it’,” Harrison said.
“So yeah, I took it. My first game in charge was against Argentina at Coogee Oval, before the 2019 World Cup.
“Then my next wasn’t until July 2020, almost a year later after the first Covid lockdown period.”
The not-so-soft introduction accelerated Harrison’s learning of what – and who – was required.
“We were really close, but we just kept falling at the last hurdle – losing each of our last three semi-finals appearances by a point,” Harrison said.
“Benny McCormack was an excellent coach, but he was part-time and was working in the building industry. On the other hand, virtually, every other club had a full-time first grade coach.”
That was when the wheels began turning for Hoiles’ stunning elevation to the job.
Not that he could see it.
“I was coaching at the LA Giltinis [in the US Major League Rugby competition], I thought it would be a good couple of years there in LA, I became head coach because DC [Darren Coleman] had come back to coach the Tahs,” Hoiles said.
But financial turmoil struck the Giltinis.
“The team fell apart pretty quickly,” Hoiles said.
“[Director of rugby] Adam Freier and myself thought we could salvage LA, guys had kids in schools there, I couldn’t be a coach who was bailing on players.”
Hoiles had heard Randwick were in the market for a new coach, but his focus was on trying to save the Giltinis.
It couldn’t be done.
The owner of the F45 gym chains, Adam Gilchrist, had formed both the Giltinis and Austin Gilgronis, but was under fiscal stress and the MLR kicked out both clubs from the tournament for violating league rules.
The American dream was done.
Hoiles then noticed the Randwick job advertised on Facebook, and already having knocked back polite inquiries because of the LA gig, now expressed interest.
“We still had to work through the proper process of hiring a coach,” Harrison said.
After receiving a staggering 50 applications for the job, Randwick’s recruitment panel set about narrowing the field.
Beside Harrison was club coach and legend Morgan Turinui, and Randwick board member Richard Carmont, who’d marked John Schuster when the All Blacks played the Galloping Greens in Coogee in 1988.
“We asked the candidates to present us with a plan on how they were going to win the Shute Shield,” Harrison said, “with a business plan and within budget.
“Three people got to that point.”
One of them was club stalwart and former Waratahs and Bath playmaker Shaun Berne.
“He came in for the interview, but it quickly turned out that he was interviewing us,” Harrison said.
“He kept asking us, ‘What are you doing to fix this?’ ‘Why aren’t we winning?’ We were taken aback but also amused.”
Berne would find out through sources that Hoiles was also on the short list.
“He called me,” Hoiles said. “He said, ‘You’ve got to take this job’.”
Hoiles’ second interview clinched the deal.
“Everyone was talking about attack, about playing the old Randwick way,” Harrison said.
“Hoilesy walked in here and said, ‘We’re never going to win the premiership with a shit defence.”
With some coaching experience under his belt, Hoiles understood the mentality required.
“At Randwick it was always, ‘You score four tries and we’ll score five’. I was like, stuff that, we’ll score four and you’ll score one,” he said.
The rebuild
Hoiles needed trusted lieutenants as his assistants - so he went to two former teammates.
Hoiles and Rob Horne won the 2014 Super Rugby premiership together with NSW.
Horne would go on to play for Northampton, but on April 14, 2018, in his first game as captain for the English club, suffered a horrendous injury that left him with paralysis in his right arm.
It would have been easy for Horne to turn his back on the game.
“My injury, it’s not something you expect when you start playing the game,” Horne said. “It’s a cross I have to bear.
“But, you say the game’s taken a lot from me. Physically, yes, it has, but it’s given me a lot, it’s given me all these relationships.
“When times get tough, you know that you’ve got people that have had these shared experiences with you.”
He and Hoiles will always have the night of the Waratahs’ grand final win over the Crusaders – NSW’s only Super Rugby title – and the celebrations with friends and family at The Ivy bar afterwards.
So even though Horne grew up playing for Southern Districts, former Brumbies teammate Hoiles’ offer to join him at Randwick was accepted.
Ben Hand, whose club was Eastwood, said he was determined to give back to the game.
“Club rugby is a chance for us, as a community, to re-engage what we love about footy, to stand on the sideline with your mates, your kids, your wife, and actually just genuinely enjoy rugby and not get caught up with any of the politics or the theatrics that have surrounded the game, at the next level, over the last year or two,” Hand said.
Along with that trio, and Turinui, Randwick had head of performance Matt Rains, strength and conditioning coaches Eli Brown and Harry Jeong, club doctors Paul Raftos and Adrian Cohen, physios Di Long and Greer Brincat, and team managers Peter Meagher and Jack Singleton running the operations for a tilt at the long-awaited trophy.
“After five rounds we were two-and-three,” Hoiles said. “But I wasn’t worried because from what I’d seen, I knew we’d be OK.
“There was a game there where we basically defended the entire match. We lost, but the attitude and determination from our boys told me they’d be OK. And it turned out that way, our guys got comfortable defending and playing without the ball.
“And as the season went on, our attack developed as a result of us being comfortable defending.”
Horne said: “Everything we did was positive, I mean that in a style way, in the way we approached the game.
“We’re saying if the option is there, you have to take it. I’m going to get up you if there’s a chance that you saw and you decided to take the safe option, right, that’s an issue.
“You’re empowered to make a decision. To not make a decision is the soft option.
“But we’re one of the few teams in the competition, I found personally, that played positively. “A lot of teams I feel were watching professional rugby, levels above, and using certain tactics that work in that arena and trying to apply it here. But at this level, you don’t need to apply those tactics.
“For instance, contestable kicking. It has its purpose, in Test footy, its purpose is to create opportunities because there are very few. It’s so hard to break down a test defensive line.
“Whereas here, you just want mismatches, and you do get mismatches. There are opportunities everywhere where you look.”
Hand added: “To Rob’s point, you’d see a lot of opposition teams try and take the pace out of the game against us, and we were always encouraging the boys just to take the game on.
“They enjoyed that, and could see that they were fatiguing teams as well through that philosophy.
“It was something which, as the season grew, that was part of their identity that grew as well.”
The decider
Northern Suburbs had claimed the minor premiership, and stormed into the grand final with a thumping 23-5 win over Manly.
Randwick were equally impressive, defeating Eastwood 38-20 in their semi-final.
After 19 years of misery, the iconic Randwick club had a chance to end the drought.
But not only was it a momentous occasion for first grade – they had three out of four grades in the grand finals at Leichhardt Oval.
Fourth grade - coached by Wicks stalwarts Joe Picone, Lachlan McKay and Tom Hiddleston, with help from managers Ian Holder and Allen Stutchbury - set the tone for the day with a 37-7 victory over Manly.
They celebrated with giant gold chains and photos of legendary Randwick identity Jeff Sayle.
Then thirds claimed back-to-back premierships with a close 33-28 grand final win over Eastwood, orchestrated by coaches Rob Hoyles, John Delaney, Tom Wallace and manager Ian Hartley.
In the Randwick ranks, thoughts slowly crept towards a clean sweep.
But Hoiles knew all too well the pain of falling short when it counted most.
He gathered his men in the sheds.
“I know there are other times when superstars do it for us,” Hoiles said, as photos of Randwick legends graced each wall.
“You guys have an opportunity to do something that may never ever happen again.
“It will be the most famous Randwick side in the f---ing history of the club, because the club has never gone this long without success.
“So the challenge now is to stay in the game, focus on a moment, focus on an effort area, do what you’ve done all year, do it with the person next to you, and go out and have the best collective game of the year.”
Harrison still remembers the hairs standing up on the back his neck.
“I wanted to play,” he said. “Hearing that speech from Hoilesy, you just wanted to run through a brick wall.”
The message sunk in. Centre Nick Chan made some telling busts, lock Cormac Daly – now with Queensland Reds – scored a try, as did five-eighth Andrew Deegan.
The men returned to the sheds at halftime leading 17-3. It couldn’t have gone better.
“I reckon I did my good speech before kick-off, and then my crap one at halftime,” Hoiles said.
There were several expletives.
“I just knew that at some point the tide would turn in that second half and I wanted the boys to be emotionally ready for that, but I might have gone too hard,” Hoiles said.
Norths were not going to die wondering.
A rolling maul try to Luke Gersekowski just after the break, and a Henry O’Donnell touchdown had Norths back in the race for the title at 17-15 down.
Norths could have taken the lead with eight minutes to go, however the penalty goal attempt from Jude Gibbs sailed wide.
Hoiles brought on flanker Christian Poidevin, son of the club icon.
In an extraordinary display, Poidevin forced numerous breakdown turnovers and recovered loose balls as raid after Norths raid was repelled.
In any premiership campaign, there are hiccups.
On the sideline, a nervous Turinui watched as replacement halfback Ky Willoughby entered the fray.
Only a few months earlier, Turinui had sat with Willoughby’s parents to convince the kid to stay. Willoughby was playing fourth grade at the time and unhappy at the lack of chances coming his way.
How fitting that it would be Willoughby taking the ball at the base of a ruck and kicking it straight to the hill as the whistle sounded as Randwick supporters screamed in elation.
The ball was caught by none other than Berne, who’d captained Randwick to their previous title in 2004.
Hoiles, Harrison, Horne, Hand; all overcome with relief and rapture.
Randwick captain Ben Houston still struggles to find the words.
“It’s a feeling that I’ve never felt before and I can’t describe it,” Houston said.
“Everyone says when you win a premiership, you can’t really describe it. And it’s like your body goes in shock. You’ve got so many emotions going everywhere.
“I sort of froze for a bit because I didn’t really know what to do, it’s just an unbelievable experience and the happiness and the joy that you see on everyone’s faces everywhere you go, your families, your friends, it’s something that you can’t recreate.
“You have to be in the moment. And it was a feeling that I’ll feel for the rest of my day. And I will chase that for the rest of my life, for the rest of my life, because it’s indescribable.
“That’s why I feel like now, this year, everyone wants to chase that high again. And that’s a big driver for this year.”
That starts this weekend in the Australian Club Championship match in Brisbane against Brothers, who as fate would have it, are coached by none other than their previous boss McCormack.
Randwick will draw on their own brotherhood to become kings of the country.
“At the presentation night, the guys greet you with a hug, when you win things, well that creates a bond which is with you forever,” Horne said.
Australian rugby has had a rough couple of decades, much like Randwick.
This week, the Wallabies slipped to an all-time low of 10th in the World Rugby rankings.
There is a despondence when people discuss the state of the game.
But they need only look to club land, where the passion remains as fiery as the golden age.
“It’s just genuine rugby,” Hand said. “And it’s fundamentally where it all started for a lot of us.
“I just think if you can have enough people in your local community caring about footy, then it’s got a future.”
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