Season So Far
reflection at the half way point
Think `Substack’ and images of massive sandwiches spring to mind. The kind of thing Scoobs and Shaggy find time to wolf down, the serendipitous plus point of being chased through a kitchen. `Giant Substacks’ , I’m fairly certain was a famous wrestler from the 80’s. Maybe not, could just be me.
Anyhoo - I thought a regular club newsletter type email may be of interest. It provides the occasional opportunity for a cathartic club download / rant, alongside showing you all that’s been happening at our wonderful club.
Kids
As from September, youth rugby has been back at Iford Lane on Sunday mornings. It’s been great; we’ve approx. 15 x Diddy Dockers (3-5yrs), about the same in age groups U6-U-8, and a group of 8-10 in the Kids first contact age groups U-9 - U11’s.
My thanks to all the coaches. Lady Morgan, with help from Cornish Ollie, has been introducing the egg-shaped ball to the Diddies. Ollie must help to be honest as his child is by far the naughtiest. Joe Day is then looking after the U6-U8, introducing them to the joys of tag rugby as well as lots of handling games.
Jimmy Syrett and I are taking the U-9-11’s with help from Mike. We’ve a brilliant group and have been working towards a joint training session and match with New Milton. Some real superstars are in the making, and I have to mention Evelyn who wants to be the first woman to represent England in both football and rugby. At this stage, I see no reason as to why this won’t happen.
With help from Howard (Ticket Officer) and the RFU, four of the kids went to Twickenham for the first time to watch England play Argentina. Shame about the result (especially for Eddie) but they all loved the visit to HQ.
The first half of the season was capped off with a Christmas party at the clubhouse. Lady Morgs spent the entire previous evening wrapping the pass the parcel parcels, and Joe put in an incredible shift in full entertainer mode. Joe was in his element to be fair.; a hybrid Mr Tumble meets Ryan Reynolds with some of the best Dad dance moves the club house has ever seen. To see the clubhouse full of parents and future Dockers was a joy.
Women
What a photo. The girls / Warrior Queens have played two matches and had two wins so far this season. A resounding home win against Poole in October, and then in November, they gave Andover a 39-0 thumping away from home, where this photo was taken.
I watched the Poole match, and it was impressive. There’s real power in the pack, and Ben has his forwards doing the basics so well. There’s a mix of super hard runners, strong set piece and a willingness to offload out of the tackle. From what I hear of the Andover game, more of the same from 1-8.
The backs are teeming with talent. What stood out for me watching the Poole match was the ferocity and quality of the tackling. Harri must have put 86 tackles in from Scrum Half and Jayme is a human Exocet missile - 100% commitment into her poor unsuspecting victims. Across the team though, every player seems to love the more bosh aspects of our wonderful game.
Leah, the women’s skipper, leads by example; runs past and through countless would-be defenders on her way to scoring multiple tries, and conversely puts in whopper tackles when needed. On-pitch positivity mixed with off pitch fun, the perfect (and very Docker) combo.
The women’s section has recruited well through Inner Warrior camps in the summer, and on-going social media drives full of great content. There seems to be new faces almost every week, which is great. The focus now is to get 3-4 matches played in the second half of the season, showing suitability to go into a league next season. This must happen, as this wonderful group and amazing coach, need the rewards of more games to fulfil their incredible potential.
Lads
There are a couple of sayings that spring to mind. `The league doesn’t lie’ is one, and `the map is not the territory’ is the other. Both can co-exist with each other when looking at how the first half of the season has gone for the best-looking (see above) team in Dorset.
We should be incredibly proud of how we’ve progressed from match 1 (a loss at home to Wimborne) to our last match, a good win against the same team at their place. The week before that, we took a squad of 22 players across to Swans and put 60 unanswered points on them.
There’s no denying that the three-game patch before these last two wins, was a real battle. Player availability has always had its ups and downs, and we went through a down. Work, injuries, childbirth. Shopping. There were (as there has always been) lots of individual reasons why guys couldn’t play. The challenge was to stay positive, play our fixtures and bounce back. And that’s what we did.
With help from the AECC lads, a head coach who put his boots back on, a positive and lead from the front Captain in Vickers with his group of determined teammates, we got through 3 tough games. Okay - we got pumped away at both Lytchett and Puddletown, and narrowly lost to Oaks (Brian you are my hero) at home. Yet – we played the fixtures and avoided any loss of league points.
I also think that run cemented the team. The tide tuned; numbers returned to both training (combined with brilliant training sessions) and match availability, and we put out two strong sides for two consecutive weeks. The feeling of playing both Swans and Wimborne with a full-strength squad only felt as good as it did because of the experience of getting through those hard weeks and tough matches.
Whilst we are where we are in the league presently - I’ve every confidence that this group will be climbing the table over the next 3 months. We’ve recently seen some older and very welcome faces return to playing, as well as an injection of youth with a number of young bucks having signed up. The whole squad is excited to see them play, and if Blake’s on pitch rugby is as energised as his in-club dancing, we’re all in for a treat.
A massive thank you to our coach Alex and our Captain, Vickers. They both started their roles in a season where several key players had stopped through retirement, first or second babies, work commitments, moving away, etc. As a result, both roles were going to be more demanding than in previous seasons, but both have embraced the challenge, kept positive and stayed consistent.
Alex is delivering fun and challenging sessions on a Thursday and adding real emphasis on specific aspects of our play. Every match, more of that work is coming through both individually and collectively. Supporting Alex by maintaining high numbers at training and availability on Saturdays is going to be key - we’ve a brilliant coach and talented players, but the work has to be done to keep improving
As mentioned earlier, Vickers is a lead by example Skipper. By playing and talking positively, he’s got me and many others through those `well, this is pants’ moments during the two pastings. He’s been the perfect example for the new guys to see at the club, and together with Alex is making sure we keep pushing to raise our standards. Referees are made to feel welcome; the opposition captain and players are looked after. Brilliant stuff - onwards.
Committee, Volunteers & Club Stuff
In season, running a rugby club is like planning a wedding each weekend for 7 months. The venue needs sorting, people need booking and confirming, there’s (washed) kit that needs to be worn, paperwork to fill in, food to be cooked and beer to be stocked.
A huge thanks to everyone on the committee who commit to behind the scenes work that makes each game possible. Be it Mark sorting fixtures, El hounding you for subs, Becky sorting out GMS and match cards, Howard dealing with the powers that be at BCP, or Scott dealing with all things Safeguarding - it’s a real team behind the teams. My thanks also to our President Stu, who on top of being a constant clubman on both home and away games, has been a great sounding board over this and previous seasons.
Joe Day has put in a huge effort since the summer across nearly all aspects of the club. On top of his responsibilities as Secretary, he’s worked with Kati and Andy to produce brilliant recruitment videos for up-and-coming social media campaigns. Every Saturday he’s helping with the food or bar, and just ensuring that match days go well. He’s worked on maintaining and growing our relationship with Chiropractic College, and tirelessly kept the energy going to have regular socials. To top it off, on Sundays, the kids have him for coaching.
Where would be without the man Shed? Rhymes with `rucked’. Shed does so much of the heavy lifting around the club as a constant part of his week, as well as fulfilling his role as Club Captain. Whilst I know my way around the club loo’s more than most, most of the club tidying and cleaning is done by Shed and his dog Barny. Shed sorts out kit and leads all the match day practical jobs that are essential to running the ship.
Dave Williams is looking after the club a lot during the week. AECC boys play on Wednesday afternoons, and Dave alongside Alan Ketchley have been hosting the matches and running the bar. Dave also looks after the touch rugby lads on Wednesday nights, works behind the bar for any private doo’s, sorts out beer deliveries and acts as point of contact for any suppliers, tradesman or BCP bods that need access. Such a lovely man and presence to have at the club.
We are almost there with the kitchen refurbishment, and shortly after that attaining our Food Hygiene Certificate and rating. Jamie Whitehall is new to the club and a brilliant player. He put his hand up for all things kitchen and has done a tonne of work. Jamie’s work has been backed up by the wonderful Penny, who has plumbed in new sinks to a newly constructed bar lay out via the skills of the beautifully bearded Declan Francis. We’ve been joined by two new volunteers, Debi and Emma, who are going to get stuck into the kitchen and cook fresh lovely meals for post matches – lads and ladies. Having the kitchen running properly is going to really add to the club.
Loads To look Forward To
Climbing the league table with the hunks
Getting more games for the ladies
Recruiting more players into the EDD family
Coaching more kids on Sundays
6 Nations at the club / big socials
Getting the club open as much as we can
New kitchen
A reminder that the club is open on Chritsmas Eve Eve - tommorow- from 5pm onwards for a big one before the big one. I bloody love our club and everyone in it. Have a joyful Christmas and New Year.
Love
Morgs xxxx