A new committee has been formed to represent the interests of senior players directly to the Board at Heriot’s Rugby Club.
The introductory meeting for the new committee including player representatives, Director of Projects Calum McNiven, Operations Director Tony Delaney and Super6 Head Coach Andrew Kelly, took place virtually in late October.
Player representatives from the Super6, Blues Women and Blues Men include: Iain Wilson, Ross Jones, Michael Liness, Katy Green, Annabel Sergeant, Violeta De Puig Canosa, Martin Hughes (pictured above), Graham Wilson and Stewart Mustard.
Representatives on the committee will act as leadership figures within club and discuss player issues such as social events, player standards, membership and volunteering.
Creating a Player Committee for the club was driven by former player Calum who was appointed to the Board earlier this year.
‘‘The idea of the formal creation of the Player Committee is to try and take the club to the next level – led by the players, to instil a culture of commitment to excellence, while having fun and being shaped by what the players want to see from their rugby club,’’ he said.
‘‘The committee is the embodiment of the entire playing group – a set of representatives to discuss ideas, make proposals to improve the club and engage with one another to further the “one club” mentality.
‘‘This has been particularly important given lockdown and we are hopeful the committee becomes a cornerstone of player-led success of the whole club.’’
Players Committee representative Katy Sanjuan noted the successful Paintballing Day in November was an initiative to come from the new group.
‘‘It’s a great way to have regular communication between the different sections of the club which is so important, particularly in the current circumstances,’’ she said.
‘‘I wanted to be part of it to be a voice for the Blues Women. I’ve been around the block a few times and hopefully the team feel they can approach me with any issues they want raised.’’
The new group will be able to drive player led standards at the club, Players Committee representative Martin Hughes believes.
‘‘Squads need to start taking responsibility and setting their own high standards at training, to lead to better standards in games,’’ he said.
‘‘It also gives us a direct route as a group of players to communicate with the Board. Now we can bring up any issues or highlight areas the club could improve on, or discuss what has been going well, hopefully improving the experience for all players.’’