Hunter Rugby
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Stan Wickham (3)
Bit of news regarding Hunter Rugby this year.
Premier Mens starts on 12th April, this year there is six clubs fielding at least three grades each:
Maitland Blacks
Merewether Carlton
University of Newcastle
Hamilton Hawks
Southern Beaches
Wanderers
The suburban competition, is the most interesting this year as Scone Brumbies have left the Central North competition after playing there for nearly 20 years. This makes sense when looking at some of the clubs in the competition, two singleton sides and a muswellbrook side makes the commute to games much shorter for Scone. Scone joining takes the competition to 9 sides:
Singleton Red
Singleton Black
Muswellbrook
Scone Brumbies
Cooks Hill Brownsnakes
Newcastle Griffins
Medowie
Nelson Bay
Pokolbin
Social 4ths draw and clubs is yet to be announced. In 2024, all the premier clubs fielded a 4th grade along with Cooks Hill and Medowie. Making it an eight team competition.
The Hunter Womens competition also sees Scone Brumbies joining, taking the total clubs in the womens competition to 8:
Maitland Blacks
Cooks Hill Brownsnakes
Hamilton Hawks
Merewether Carlton
Nelson Bay
Scone Brumbies
Wanderers
University of Newcastle
I believe the Hunter Rugby Womens competition is one of the biggest in the state, unfortunately Southern Beaches have pulled out so it was nearly a 9 club competition.
Premier Mens starts on 12th April, this year there is six clubs fielding at least three grades each:
Maitland Blacks
Merewether Carlton
University of Newcastle
Hamilton Hawks
Southern Beaches
Wanderers
The suburban competition, is the most interesting this year as Scone Brumbies have left the Central North competition after playing there for nearly 20 years. This makes sense when looking at some of the clubs in the competition, two singleton sides and a muswellbrook side makes the commute to games much shorter for Scone. Scone joining takes the competition to 9 sides:
Singleton Red
Singleton Black
Muswellbrook
Scone Brumbies
Cooks Hill Brownsnakes
Newcastle Griffins
Medowie
Nelson Bay
Pokolbin
Social 4ths draw and clubs is yet to be announced. In 2024, all the premier clubs fielded a 4th grade along with Cooks Hill and Medowie. Making it an eight team competition.
The Hunter Womens competition also sees Scone Brumbies joining, taking the total clubs in the womens competition to 8:
Maitland Blacks
Cooks Hill Brownsnakes
Hamilton Hawks
Merewether Carlton
Nelson Bay
Scone Brumbies
Wanderers
University of Newcastle
I believe the Hunter Rugby Womens competition is one of the biggest in the state, unfortunately Southern Beaches have pulled out so it was nearly a 9 club competition.
schmidt it in
Stan Wickham (3)
Round one of Hunter Rugby starts this weekend.
Premier Fixtures:
Third Grade - 1pm
Second Grade - 2:10pm
First Grade - 3:30pm
Suburban Fixtures:
Singleton v Singleton - Friday Night 7:30pm
Other games @ 3pm on Saturday
BYE - Nelson Bay
Womens XV Fixtures:
11:50am for the first two games.
4:30pm for Nelson Bay v Hamilton
1:30pm for Cooks Hill v Scone
Social 4s:
Season doesn't start for a few more weeks.
Premier Fixtures:
Third Grade - 1pm
Second Grade - 2:10pm
First Grade - 3:30pm
Suburban Fixtures:
Singleton v Singleton - Friday Night 7:30pm
Other games @ 3pm on Saturday
BYE - Nelson Bay
Womens XV Fixtures:
11:50am for the first two games.
4:30pm for Nelson Bay v Hamilton
1:30pm for Cooks Hill v Scone
Social 4s:
Season doesn't start for a few more weeks.
KentwellCup>ShuteShield
Tom Lawton (22)
Did the premier grade used to run more clubs then the current 6? and what happened to the Colts competition?
How is the health of hunter rugby?
How is the health of hunter rugby?
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Stan Wickham (3)
2022 there was 9 clubs in Premier.
Lake Macquarie were taken out of Premier mid season due to player safety concerns, players playing multiple grades, uncompetitive score lines etc. and they fielded two teams in the 2022 Suburban competition but left after a few games.
Lake Macquarie have gotten their player numbers up to 3 mens grades and a womens 12-a-side but now play in the Central Coast competition.
Start of 2023 season both Singleton and Nelson Bay moved into the Suburban competition.
Singleton was struggling with players working in the mines and people having alternating work rosters, one weekend they would have enough for 4 mens sides and then another they would struggle fielding 3 competitive grades. So now they have 2 grades playing in Suburban.
Nelson Bay, I am not really sure what happened. They were quite strong, and honestly unsure how they lost their players.
Colts hasn't been around in the Hunter for a while.
There is rumours at the start of every year that the clubs want to bring it back but hasn't worked out.
We have an U18s Junior competition with:
- Maitland x 2
- Merewether
- Wanderers
- Southern Beaches
- Singleton
- Nelson Bay
- Terrigal
Health of Hunter Rugby:
I would honestly say it is pretty good.
Premier going down to 6 clubs was disappointing, and still is. However there is also plenty of good signs of growth.
Cooks Hill have grown from fielding just 1 mens team, to now 2 x mens and 1 x womens.
Muswellbrook made their return to Hunter Rugby in 2024 after being short in numbers for a few years, they are back again this year in the Suburban competition.
Wildfires now have 2 x colts, 2 x mens and 2 x womens sides.
A new Junior club has formed, and is aiming to be a club for the Western Suburbs of Newcastle. West Newcastle Rugby Club.
As always it could be better, and I hope premier gets back up to a larger competition, but the support is there. The Grand Final day each year draws massive crowds and always great to be apart of.
2024 Grand Final
2025 Grand Final
KentwellCup>ShuteShield
Tom Lawton (22)
Interesting thanks for taking the time to comment. My sister and her family have moved up to Newie so I have taken an interest in the Hunter comp.
Its strong for league town and especially when taken in consideration how big Newcastle is. Its ashame that premier grade has grown so small. Do player just not want the same commitment as back in the day?
How does the Hunter Comp stack up compared to the Central Coast comp? Which is larger and which is stronger?
Its strong for league town and especially when taken in consideration how big Newcastle is. Its ashame that premier grade has grown so small. Do player just not want the same commitment as back in the day?
How does the Hunter Comp stack up compared to the Central Coast comp? Which is larger and which is stronger?
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Stan Wickham (3)
Central Coast competition this year is eight teams with 3 grades.
I played juniors on the Central Coast and to be honest that is where they are struggling the most. There younger ages have a team for most clubs, but when you get to u15s Terrigal and Avoca have two teams each and only two other clubs have a team.
The older age groups the last 5 or so years it's not uncommon for the Central Coast teams to join the Hunter Junior competitions.
I wouldn't know too much about how the quality between Hunter and CC 1st grades compare. I have spoken to a few guys from Central Coast who have moved to Newcastle and they have said the quality is better in Hunter Rugby, but I have no real comparison.
There was a rumour that Terrigal wanted to leave the CC competition and move to Hunter Rugby as they won convincingly last year on the Central Coast. Winning 1st and 2nd grade finals, and a draw in 3rd grade. But they decided against it.
I played juniors on the Central Coast and to be honest that is where they are struggling the most. There younger ages have a team for most clubs, but when you get to u15s Terrigal and Avoca have two teams each and only two other clubs have a team.
The older age groups the last 5 or so years it's not uncommon for the Central Coast teams to join the Hunter Junior competitions.
I wouldn't know too much about how the quality between Hunter and CC 1st grades compare. I have spoken to a few guys from Central Coast who have moved to Newcastle and they have said the quality is better in Hunter Rugby, but I have no real comparison.
There was a rumour that Terrigal wanted to leave the CC competition and move to Hunter Rugby as they won convincingly last year on the Central Coast. Winning 1st and 2nd grade finals, and a draw in 3rd grade. But they decided against it.
KentwellCup>ShuteShield
Tom Lawton (22)
Would be interesting if a subbies divisional system would work up there. If CC and Hunter combined.
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Stan Wickham (3)
Yeah it would be interesting.
Aussie Rules has a combined 15 team Central Coast and Newcastle competition.
If Hunter Rugby and Central Coast Rugby merged the premier competition it would turn into a 14 team competition if we take all the teams playing this year (all the teams listed below have at least 3 grades):
Aussie Rules has a combined 15 team Central Coast and Newcastle competition.
If Hunter Rugby and Central Coast Rugby merged the premier competition it would turn into a 14 team competition if we take all the teams playing this year (all the teams listed below have at least 3 grades):
- Hamilton Hawks
- Maitland Blacks
- Merewether Carlton
- Southern Beaches
- University of Newcastle
- Wanderers
- Woy Woy
- Ourimbah Razorbacks
- Lake Macquarie Roos
- Terrigal Trojans
- Avoca Beach
- Gosford Kariong
- Warnervale Wildcats
- Northlakes/The Bay
Propsruntheworld
Bob McCowan (2)
I'm new to the hunter, who are the premier stalwarts and cellar dwellers? is there a club on the rise? Friday night 4's sounds like a great Competition for blokes who are strapped for time or who have family.
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Stan Wickham (3)
The last few seasons Maitland and Merewether are the two big clubs.
Merewether beat Maitland 41-26 in the 1st Grade Final last season.
Maitland beat Merewether 32-26 in the 1st Grade Final in 2023.
Wanderers won 2nd Grade last season.
Southern Beaches won 3rd Grade last season.
Merewether won social 4ths.
Singleton won Suburban.
Wanderers won Womens XV.
I would personally say clubs like Wanderers, Maitland and Merewether probably are the big clubs currently. Seem to have a bit of extra money to help recruit players compared to the other clubs.
Hamilton used to be the dominate club but they have been going through a bit of a rebuild, especially in 2nds and 3rds recently.
That leaves Southern Beaches and University as kind of the underdogs in Premier.
University always have some great players, but they lack the older figures and experience. Saying that they have a new coaching team this year and I think they have some older players starting to stick around so will be interesting to see how they go. A couple of years ago they actually had 5 mens grades and 1 womens, so they were the biggest Hunter club in terms of players.
Beaches is a tough one, they always try to compete for at least one title. Last year that was third grade, they won the competition in 3rds. But at the expense of players who probably should be playing higher grades, so their 2nds and 1s didn't go great (both came last).
In terms of a club on the rise, probably have to look at Cooks Hill in suburban. They started out as a pub footy sorta team in Suburban, now have grown to 2 mens teams and a womens team. They lost to Singleton last year in the suburban final, but singleton were in Premier a few years ago so you would expect them to be competitive. They also lost to Merewether in the 4s final, but again Merewether are a premier club.
KentwellCup>ShuteShield
Tom Lawton (22)
Do you know if the clubs who have dropped into the suburban comp have ambitions to move up again?
HogansHeros
Alex Ross (28)
Recently moved to the Hunter aswell, whats the deal with Friday night 4s? Is it running this year?
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Stan Wickham (3)
Yep.
Always starts a few weeks after premier.
Draw should hopefully end up on Rugby Xplorer soon.
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Stan Wickham (3)
I hope so.
Singleton I think have the best chance. But I really haven't heard anything.
There was speculation floating around that Nelson Bay and Medowie were going to work on possibly one of the clubs fielding a 1st and 2nd grade, and the other fielding the third grade side in premier. As they are the two only Port Stephens clubs.
schmidt it in
Stan Wickham (3)
Social 4s Update:
Draw and teams still isn't out yet.
Asked my club, and it will be starting in May.
Maitland posted on FaceBook that they will be putting in a second Friday night side, due to player numbers.
Going off who was in Social 4ths last year, we can expect the competition to look like this:
- Maitland 1
- Maitland 2
- Cooks Hill
- Merewether
- Wanderers
- University of Newcastle
- Medowie
- Hamilton
- Southern Beaches
So it should be about 9 teams, I wouldn't be surprised if Beaches struggle to field a 4th grade so maybe an 8 team competition. But still waiting for the official draw.
Draw and teams still isn't out yet.
Asked my club, and it will be starting in May.
Maitland posted on FaceBook that they will be putting in a second Friday night side, due to player numbers.
Going off who was in Social 4ths last year, we can expect the competition to look like this:
- Maitland 1
- Maitland 2
- Cooks Hill
- Merewether
- Wanderers
- University of Newcastle
- Medowie
- Hamilton
- Southern Beaches
So it should be about 9 teams, I wouldn't be surprised if Beaches struggle to field a 4th grade so maybe an 8 team competition. But still waiting for the official draw.
HogansHeros
Alex Ross (28)
Good news for maitland. Healthy number of clubs. Awesome to provide an alternate time for people that cant commit to saturdays.
HogansHeros
Alex Ross (28)
I notice hunter has run 7s comps in summer for womens and colts in the past. Has there ever been interest for a grade comp?
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Stan Wickham (3)
I think they did a mens competition a while ago, but interest is higher for the womens
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Stan Wickham (3)
Hunter Rugby Premier, Suburban and Womens XV Round 1 Results and Ladder:
Round one kicked off yesterday for Hunter Rugby in the main competitions (Social 4ths kicks off in May).
Premier 1:
Suburban:
Womens XV:
Great to have local footy back!
Premier 2 and 3 had some great matches as well, if interested here are the links to those results:
Prem 2
Prem 3
Round one kicked off yesterday for Hunter Rugby in the main competitions (Social 4ths kicks off in May).
Premier 1:
Suburban:
Womens XV:
Great to have local footy back!
Premier 2 and 3 had some great matches as well, if interested here are the links to those results:
Prem 2
Prem 3