Armidale Blues Rugby Club
Name of Club:
Armidale Blues Rugby Club
Home Ground:
Moran Oval Armidale
Club Competition:
New England Rugby Union, NSW Country
Number of Teams at Club:
4
Club’s Rugby History:
The Blues has resulted as a merger of two great clubs from within New England. Armidale City with 100 years of history including many Premierships and representative players and coaches at all levels including Wallabies John Hipwell and Greg Cornelson. The other club is Old Boys with a shorter yet extremely impressive history of State representatives and numerous Premierships including appearing in 14 straight Grand Finals. These two great clubs have combined bringing together members from a wide spectrum from across the NE Rugby community and from afar.
Club personalities/characters:
Garry Osborne (Drummer) who is known as the greatest clubman of all time with over 20 years of fulfilling every role possible in the club from ground marking and mowing to club Secretary and everything in between. We also have a diverse playing group with many fantastic personalities including Phil Franklin (Corny) who has played for the club for 15 seasons straight and at 35 kilos ringing wet still holds down a first grade spot as hooker/openside breakaway with weekly outstanding performances. Corny still manages to be last to training and last to leave the Impies each week.
2008 Club Goals:
To achieve improvements in all individual and team performances across all grades, to develop and increase the profile of Junior rugby in Armidale and to have a larger involvement in the wider community including a Lunch we hosted which featured Billy Birmingham and a Cancer Council Fundraiser we held at a home game where we auctioned our Jerseys and were able to raise over $10,000 for the Cancer Council in front of a huge crowd.
Club Role Models:
President Ian Lloyd who continues to contributes to rugby at all levels behind the scenes and 1st grade captain Mike Temoana who hails from Wellington NZ and despite his ugly accent and appearance has contributed to the club in all aspects from 1st grade best and fairest to creating a club song.
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