Western Clydesdales recruitment key to team’s premiership chances
With NRLW, Origin and Australian stars in their line-up the Western Clydesdales are primed for a huge 2024. Here are the three key reasons why they are premiership contenders.
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The Western Clydesdales are BMD Premiership contenders.
Any doubt surrounding their position and potential was all but shattered last week when NRLW, State of Origin and Australian rugby league legend Steph Hancock signed with the club.
The two-time NRLW Premiership and Women’s World Cup winner is the perfect player for any new team playing at any level of the game.
Hancock also joins an all-star Clydesdales cast which includes the likes of former Oakey Bears junior Shenae Ciesiolka, Ali Brigginshaw and Kezie Apps to name a few.
You’d be hard pressed to find someone at the club willing to say it out loud but The Chronicle Sport Team believe the Western Clydesdales are the real deal.
With the 2024 season kick-off just weeks away here’s why we think the Clydesdales are capable of something special.
Recruitment
Steph Hancock was one of the first names on the Clydesdales management ‘dream team’ list when their place in the 2024 BMD Premiership season was confirmed in October.
They had to wait for Hancock’s signature but, in the meantime, they hit the ground running.
The Clydesdales ‘dreamt big’ and they signed big as well.
On that same day the Clydesdales announced the signings of Gatton Hawks premiership winner and Canberra Raiders star Tara Reinke and NQ Cowboys player Jessikah Reeves.
Since then a host of NRLW and NRLW Pathways players have joined the club including 2016 Dally M Women’s medal winner Kenzie Apps.
All up the Clydesdales have ten players with NRLW or NRLW Pathways Program experience.
Just as importantly though the Clydesdales have snapped up the best talent the TRLW has to offer with the likes of Sarah Hoger, Natalia Webb and Kimberley Dore secured.
The Clydesdales have a squad which almost perfectly mixes experience with young players eager to prove themselves against top opposition.
With Hancock, Reinke and Apps upfront they will be able to match any forward pack as well as having like-for-like replacements on the bench.
Out wide they will have plenty of speed and strike power with Ciesiolka an obvious vocal point in attack.
Clydesdales CEO Shane Sullivan and women’s coach Mitch Sargent have always been quick to acknowledge the strength of their rival clubs, and rightly so because the BMD Premiership is top tier league competition full of talented players.
However, we are at the very least on par with a lot of the top clubs from a talent and experience point of view and there would be few clubs, if any, with more talent.
Culture
Swapping NT Rugby for the Western Clydesdales, Shane Sullivan knew exactly what type of foundation the club would need to be built on after more than a decade in the state cup wilderness.
Knowing rugby league is the sporting lifeblood of the Darling Downs and South West Queensland, Sullivan recognised the need to get the club’s culture right.
Sullivan and the newly formed Clydesdales committee set about getting the right people in place off the field to help shape the club’s success on it.
Inaugural women’s coach Mitch Sargent is one of those key figures alongside the other members of the Clydesdales senior and junior coaching team.
Sargent knows what rugby league means to this region and just as importantly he has signed players who are committed to the Clydesdales badge, putting the needs of the team and the club over their own.
Players who understand what that same badge represents to the local communities that support the club and their pride, passion and dedication.
Players who accept a team is only as strong as its weakest link so there is no room for individuals
In Steph Hancock, Ali Brigginshaw, Shenae Ciesiolka and Kezie Apps he has leaders who know the importance of a ‘good culture’ on and off field and are fully capable of not only defining but implementing that culture.
Fan base
There’s no questioning the loyalty of rugby league fans in our region.
Rugby league is embedded in the DNA of most people from around these parts but that loyalty only goes so far.
Working with TRL and TJRL, the club is focused on building a pathway for the region’s best young players, male and female, to develop their game and live out their rugby league dreams.
The Clydesdales have worked hard to engage the community and that shows with solid crowds turning out for last season’s junior and senior home games.
The Clydesdales have the fans on their side, and that is vital to the continued success of any club, now they just need to give them more reason to pile through the gates.
The Western Clydesdales BMD Premiership season kicks off on March 9 with a home game against the CQ Capras.