Time is running desperately short for the Forster Tuncurry Dolphins and Dolphinettes if the rugby union club is to make a respectable start to the season at the Crescent Head sevens tournament on February 1.
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Beginning so early in the year presents obvious fitness problems, hampered as the club is by the annual comings and goings of players through employment demands and educational needs.
Most particularly this year the Dolphinettes women's team must overcome the employment loss of two of its finest teenagers in Emily Kennedy and Carla Pereira-Odlum.
As it eventuated, last Thursday's initial training session saw a welcome reprieve in the long-running drought although the poor player-head count led the Forster Tuncurry Dolphins' indomitable coach, Ron McCarthy, to repeat his customary annual pledge: "We train every scheduled rugby session. No excuses - rain, hail or snowstorm.
"If we cannot train on the ground at Peter Barclay Field, then we will train indoors in our clubhouse."
Classy inside-back, Mark Hagarty, will lead the Dolphins again this winter after his captaincy of last season saw the club complete an unbeaten winter for its seventh premiership since the Mid North Coast zone was divided in 2008.
Multiple premiership-winner, play-maker Matthew Nuku, is understood to be considering his playing future after a splendid career.
Potentially a provincial representative, he would have been a fine acquisition for the Mid North Coast Axemen had he made himself available for the annual NSW Country carnivals.
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The Kennards Hire sponsored premiership for the six Lower Mid North Coast clubs will begin on Saturday, April 4.
Despite an extraordinary turnover of players in the first two seasons of women's rugby in the area, Forster's Dolphinettes remain a vibrant, competitive group under the coaching of Peter Strickland.
Players of the quality of the captain, Savannah Clements, along with the likes of Bianca Rugari, Chloe Foley, Daniela Crowther, Demi Fox, Gabrielle Hunter and Emma-Lee Burnett will surely see their efforts and talent rewarded this year.
Likewise, returning after season-ending injuries are two of the club's most gifted players, Chloe Coble and Christina Davis.
In the meantime, the Lower Mid North Coast Junior organisation is continuing its splendid pre-season program of introducing young players to rugby under Aaron Dodds, who has taken over the role from Wallamba's dual-premiership coach, Lee Sullivan.
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