REPRESENTATIVES from Oberon Tigers Rugby League Club met with residents and staff at Columbia Aged Care facility last week to give an insight into the turnaround from an underperforming club in 2014/15 to be last year’s grand finalists and this year’s Group 10 favourites.
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Secretary Neil O'Grady said the club certainly values the support and sponsorship of the Columbia Aged Care Village and the Tigers are delighted to update where the club is heading.
"In the 1960s and 1970s, the Oberon Tigers were a powerhouse rugby league town. This year we celebrate our 60th anniversary,” he said.
"We are by far the smallest town in the Group 10 competition. We have a town size of about 2700 and a local government area of just over 5000 residents.
"To think that we compete against the likes of Bathurst and Orange with populations close to 45,000 each gives you some kind of idea of the challenges we face. We have a very small player pool to draw from.
"In 2014/15, the pride of Oberon did not win a game for 18 long months; we simply did not have the firepower to match the bigger clubs. Something had to be done.
"In order to develop our strategy to enable our ‘purpose and vision’, the first step was to have a close look at what we currently looked like. That gave us the opportunity to understand what we were doing well, what we weren’t doing well and what we weren’t doing at all.
"A few outputs from the diagnostic were to build a better sponsorship program, bring together an effective committee, conduct formal meetings with agendas and action items and to attract marquee players. The committee began to meet on a regular basis, but this time every meeting had a structured agenda. Ideas were encouraged and the planning process was an all-inclusive affair – from ball boys and sponsors right through to the president, who all had an equal voice. We built a strategy that everyone had ownership in. And with ownership comes accountability.
"So apart from having great players, we have a really engaged team that buys into our purpose and vision and are prepared to be accountable for implementing our strategy. It doesn’t come down to one individual."