The experience is more important than results
OTB 4 – Sunday 18 October 2009
There were a few lessons learnt this year. One for me was that you never break a basic rule when making a speach. Always start by explaining the point you are going to make. If you don’t, people will hear what you say but they may not understand what you mean. This is what happened during my address at the 2009 Presentation event.
I started with a welcome to those present and dived into the introduction.
“Bear with me while I share with you the thoughts I had when considering my words for this address and proposing a toast to our Club. This annual presentation event is about recognising the Rugby achievement of our senior teams and celebrating the Rugby experience delivered to us (the Club members), and our sponsors and supporters. We will recognise our Club achievements, which have been outstanding, at the AGM on Sunday 6 December.
Our Rugby goals are:
1. To enter teams where possible in competitions run in the Newcastle and Hunter region – we participated in 3 of the 4 available competitions; the HWRU competition, and the NHRU Premier and 1st Division competitions.
2. To finish top 3 in the women’s competition – we finishing 1st as minor premiers.
3. To finish top 3 in the NHRU Club Championship – we finished 2nd in both the 1st Division and Premier Rugby Club championships.
During the presentation event you will hear that, because we achieved our goals, we achieved great results like:
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our women’s team being major premiers and scooping the awards pool at the HWRU presentation
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4th grade finishing second and achieving a Grand Final appearance despite sitting middle of the table around mid season
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3rd grade finishing second with match result stats that equal the performance of our 1st grade
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2nd grade finishing second and scoring the most tries of any Wanderers team
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1st Grade finishing as minor and major premiers
So, how should we compare our Rugby achievements in 2009 compared to previous years?”
I thought I had set the scene and now just had to make my point. But then someone asked, “Hey Ang, what happened to the Colts?” “Oh, Colts finished 8th”, I said, and apologised for not mentioning them. I continued to deliver the rest of my address.
“I know we are all very happy and proud of the results of all our Rugby teams. However we all know that 2009 will be especially remembered because of the result achieved by our 1st grade. I am going to suggest though that something even better happened this year.
This year I believe we, as players and as a Club, each learnt something. We learnt that being focused on a result is not as rewarding as being part of a focused team. As players we learnt that our Rugby achievements come, to borrow a phrase used by the Newcastle Knights, from always working to be the player that other players want to play with. As a Club we proved that our achievements come from always working to deliver an exceptional Rugby experience; an experience all other Newcastle Rugby Clubs try to create for themselves. We learnt that Strength comes through Loyalty.
Welcome to the Wanderers Rugby Football Club 2009 Presentation; congratulations on the Rugby results achieved, and celebrate the Rugby experience we shared. Ladies and Gentlemen, charge your glasses. I propose a toast to Strength through Loyalty and the ultimate Newcastle Rugby experience; a toast to Wanderers.”
Had I made my point? Did everyone understand what I meant? I don’t think so. First, I did not start by explaining what I was going to say and then I had missed an opportunity to recover and clearly make my point. Having the benefit of rewind, here is how I should have responded to that question.
“Oh the Colts, they finished 8th. You might have thought I had forgotten them. Well, I hadn’t. The Colts played a handful of games that finished within 7 points of the opposition. If these games had gone differently, they could have achieved results similar to our other teams. If this had happened, we may also have won the Premi
