How Our Club Was Formed
There is no question we have ourselves a wonderful Rugby Club. There just seems to be a couple of versions of how we got there and who would have thought, at the time, that within 12 months of the Club being formed, we were playing in a Grand Final.
Agreed we started in 1975 and present at the first meeting were, amongst others, John ‘Cactus Jack’ Walsh, Ken ’Evergreen’ Macaulay, Stuart ‘Mugsy’ Hill, Peter ‘Maple’ Mapledoram and Peter Goodwin.
A Committee was formed. The President was Ken Macaulay, Secretary Stuart Hill and Treasurer Peter Goodwin. A Coach John Walsh was appointed and by seasons end a Best and Fairest Player in David Peter Russell Black.
We only had one team, which played in the Third Grade Illawarra Competition. We also made the Grand Final and got ‘pipped’ in extra time.
Moving on 27 years to 4th August 1992 Ken Macaulay, Stuart Hill and Peter Mapledoram were all present at the initial meeting of the Camden Juniors. Then in 1993 our first Junior Team, the Under 17s, contained their sons Duncan Macaulay, Lindsay Hill and James Mapledoram.
Ken Macaulay never got to 100 games but his son Duncan was most likely the first Camden Rugby Junior player to chalk up the milestone of 100 Senior games for the Club.
Even now, on most Fridays, you will find Ken working on our Grounds, Stuart doing repairs, Dave whipper snipping around the fences at our Club Facilities and Bryan relating stories (all true) of events and characters which made the Club what it is.
Out of the original team (attached) William ‘Billy’ Inglis, Phil ‘Lizard’ Peters and David ‘Yo’ Black all played over 100 games for the Club. John ‘JD’ Dounan coached for several years including our 1983 First Grade Grand Finalists while Tony ‘Rat’ Thornton coached First Grade for 5 years including our 1985 and 1989 Grand Finalists.
Please enjoy listening to our 1975 Podcast as Ken Macaulay, Stuart Hill, Dave Black and Bryan Herd discuss how it all began.
And visit our 1975 Archive page to learn more.