Ryland Sharks
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Ryland Sharks
Amateur Rugby League Football Club
Article provided by Chairman Mark Wilson
P
ersonally, I have been involved with the club for around two years
but I have an affiliation going back more than twenty years having
played football at Rylands for most of my playing career. Initially my
involvement with the club was from a commercial perspective, my younger
brother who is the head coach wanted to pass on some of the roles he had at
the club due to the impending birth of his daughter.
Then when he stepped down as
Chairman to concentrate on the coaching
I took on the role. I had previously been
Chairman of a local football club so this
transition was not too difficult. From the
start, I realised there was a passion from
the committee to push this club forward
and each member shared the same vision.
2017 has been a great year for us
so far, on an off the pitch, we are flying
sitting top of NCL Division Three having
lost only one game this season. We have a
great squad of lads who are now in their
second NCL season and are starting the
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play consistently the kind of Rugby we
played in fits and starts last season.
We are looking to consolidate after a
fantastic 2016 in which they established
themselves amongst the countries elite in
the National Conference League finishing
in 4th place in our first season at that level
and losing out in the play offs to eventual
winner Drighlington. The lads also
cemented there place as the best amateur
side in Warrington, winning the Stuart
Middleton Foundation Warrington Cup.
As a club we have come a long way
the past three years under the watchful
eye of the new committee and a head
coach who have changed the whole out-
look at the club. No longer do we look
to the past, we are constantly looking to
develop and improve.
Being Chairman is a challenging
role as the costs to keep this club afloat
are rising every year. At the start of this
season we wanted to ensure that we were
going to be around for seasons to come,
so we made a real effort to restructure
what we could offer commercially and
put together a commercial prospectus
that we sent out to all our local businesses