Jared Wykes – now in his fourth year as club president – confirmed Paul McCarroll and Greg ‘Snow’ Brien will coach Wellington’s first grade side in the 2018 Graincorp Cup – Northern Division competition. 

He said the duo are a valuable asset to the club, boasting more than 20 years of experience both on and off the field. 

“Snow was president of the juniors for a long time – he has coached, reffed, trained and has been on the rugby scene since he played in juniors,” Wykes said.

“He and Paul will bring a whole fresh start really, they’re both well respected members of the rugby club and they’ll bring a lot of the juniors up through the ranks.

“They’ve been there and done it, they’ve been in their grand finals and they’re the ones who have kept the club going for a lot of years.” 

However to ensure the best chances of success in 2018 Wykes hopes to recruit experienced players to compliment juniors coming through the ranks.

In turn he hopes to eliminate what was the club’s biggest challenge in 2017 – inconsistent numbers.

“We really struggled with numbers and injuries last season, it wasn’t the best of years,” he said.

“The coaching committee have been having regular meetings since October and they’ve been approaching past and present players just trying to get a bit of experience in the team with all the young players coming up.

“Blokes that might want to come back, have a bit of a run and help the juniors out, we need them older blokes to look after them.”

Wykes said the likes of Cameron Batho, Sam Frogley and Matty Wykes have been approached, as well as David Sturman who he described as a respected player of the club.

“I think if we can get blokes like that it’ll really give the younger blokes someone to look up to,” he said.

“We’re looking for team morale really, trying to get everyone back together as a club; work on fitness, attitude and just get back to the family days when you got a lot more support at games.

And as expected, all sights are on a finals finish in 2018.

“It will depend on the numbers, but ideally we will get a finals finish,” Wykes said.

“This year will be a bit of an insight into 2019 – If we can really build on this year, it will go a long way toward the next couple of years.” 

Preseason training will commence on Tuesday, February 6 with old and new faces welcome.

For more information contact Wykes on 0407 786 267.