Wyndham City Rhinos gave their supporters and Victorian Rugby Union officials a glimpse into the future.
The Rhinos successfully presented the VRU’s junior grand final day, showing their ability to host big events.
With a multi-million dollar upgrade to Mossfiel Reserve in full swing, the Rhinos will be pushing for more big events at their venue going forward.
“It gives a very good profile of the club in being able to host it,” Rhinos president Ean Drummond said.
“It shows the rest of the rugby union fraternity the kind of day that we can put on.”
Wyndham City’s home at Heaths Road will be one of the premier suburban venues in Victorian rugby union once complete.
For nearly a decade, the Rhinos had pushed for an upgrade to their ageing clubrooms, but it continually got put on the backburner.
It finally got the tick of approval from council and will be completed in time for the 2019 season. “The master plan is finally getting off the ground,” Drummond said.
“There’s a very big redevelopment with $7.8million being spent to provide new clubroom and changeroom facilities, along with an upgrade of the ground.
“There will be three international playing fields and all lit with training lights.
“It’s been a wait, but they’ve really done their homework in providing a facility we’ll be able to utilise to its full extent.”
It has been a total rebuild for Wyndham City.
The Rhinos disbanded their senior teams to focus solely on boosting the junior base.
The senior teams – both men’s and women’s – could return in time for kick-off in 2019.
“We haven’t run seniors for a couple of years and there’s various reasons for that,” Drummond said.
“What we decided to do was focus on building our juniors because there’s a lot of competition with rugby league sides around our area.
“Once that’s built, you get new facilities and a new lot of enthusiasm, and it enables us to bring back a senior men’s side and also female participants by way of a women’s team and Aviva Sevens, a non-contact game.”
It’s not just the facilities that stand Wyndham City in good stead for years to come.
There is a stack of talented juniors coming through the system with four of its A grade teams featuring in grand finals.
“We had four A grade teams from 11s, 12s, 14s and 16s this year, which all finished in the top two and played off in the grand final.
“The club has always been very successful in the juniors and a lot of the reason for that is because of the coaching they get and the atmosphere we provide,” Drummond said.
“The increase in volunteers that we’ve had in the last couple of years has been great.”
The highlight for Wyndham City was a 38-31 win over Endeavour Hills in the U14A decider.
The Rhinos were beaten in all the other grades, going down 17-12 to Endeavour Hills in the U11s, 38-10 to Harlequins in U12A and 25-22 to Endeavour Hills in U16A.
The 16s grand final was a heartbreaker for the Rhinos with Endeavour Hills crossing the tryline with the final play to snatch victory.
