Cowra Magpies rugby league president Marc McLeish isn’t resting on the achievements of the club so far in 2018, and won’t be satisfied unless he sees the black and whites skipper Josh Rainbow lift the Group 10 premiership trophy.
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It’s a been a wild ride for McLeish, who put his hand up to fill the role of president at the club’s third annual general meeting during October last year.
Secretary Wayne Browne approached McLeish, until then, he had no intention of taking the reins.
“I was going to wait till my young bloke was in under-18s to come back and probably get involved again then,” McLeish said.
“We had a shaky start, we had a late start, we had a few things not go the clubs way. I was quite adamant when I took the job on that the club wasn’t broken at all, previous committees had done good jobs keeping us afloat,” he said.
McLeish wants to let people know how much work actually goes in to making the club a success, and he’s urging the town to throw their support behind the Magpies.
“It’s not just those 17 blokes who have got us to this point. There’s a whole range of things going on and it’s not too late to put your hand up to help,” he said.
“Blokes like Browney have been doing there job for so long, his wife, the Annettes, the Starrs, the Tidswells and young up-and-comers like Ronny Lawrence and Caley Mok, and wives and girlfriends getting involved have all been great this year.
“To be competitive, there’s a lot more off the field then people realise. We got a bit lucky, a few things fell in our lap but by hard work we put ourselves in positions to take that luck, we took a few risks, we had great sponsorship this year, there’s a wider picture we want people to see.”
He heaped praise on the club’s lower grades for challenging their respective competitions this year, and Will Ingram for shouldering the responsibility of reserve grade – the toughest job in the club, according to McLeish.
The president said he’s feeling the town gathering support of the Magpies, and he doesn’t want to settle for anything less than a premiership.
“While that slow start and late start might give that thought that everything we’ve done is great, everything is rosey and terrific, we need to acknowledge that the job is not done yet,” he said.
“We need to acknowledge that we have the squad that can and we have the committee that can turn this into a premiership.
“Second place isn’t good enough now, we have to be hungry for the big prize.”
The Magpies will host Orange Hawks on Sunday as all Group 10 major semi-finals take place at Sid Kallas Oval.
“I think the thought of hosting a grand final is exciting to us, but let’s get through this sucker first and we’ll put on a big show if we get there.”
