Weatherston honoured for service to Green Island club
GARETH Weatherston first started playing at Miller Park as a 5yearold.
Forty years later he is still tying up the bootlaces and taking to the field.
Weatherston has been a staunch supporter of the club all his life.
He has played, coached, managed, run the bar, and held most roles on the committee, including chairman and president.
Not surprisingly he is also a life member — ‘‘there are not many life members around who are still playing the game’’.
Weatherston was named volunteer of the year at the Otago rugby awards this week, an honour he said had taken him by surprise.
But looking at all he has done, and is still doing, for the Green Island club it was an easy choice.
‘‘I’ve been on the committee for the last 1617 odd years. I was told to just pop along and get involved. And I have.
‘‘Through my contacts I know a lot of people. I like to get things done. But the club has always been very good to me,’’ he said.
‘‘I’m just one of those guys who does not like seeing the club struggle to so I just dive into everything.
‘‘There is a perception out there that we are a bluecollar club.
‘‘Everyone wrote us off when we lost premier club status. But we fought back and the big thing for us is to be financially stable. To start the season in the black.’’
Weatherston admits the club has the advantage of having its own community and has good local support.
‘‘The thing about a rugby club is it is busy for 18 weeks a year. But the expenses still come for 12 months of the year. You’ve got rates, insurance, electricity. So we’ve had to start branching out, looking at new ways to help us out.
‘‘We’ve had a couple of funerals at the club . . . as they needed a big building. And we’re doing things like Grizzlies fidget spinners, phone covers, a whole lot of different things.
‘‘We were the only club last year that grew a team in the senior grades.
‘‘Plus we now have 21 junior teams, the most of any club in Dunedin.’’
He said good publicity helped the club grow and All Black Ben Smith was an asset for the club.
Weatherston, who was made a life member of the club in 2015, coaches his son Brady — he also has another son Josh and daughter Shanae — and is planning a team trip to the Gold Coast next year for Brady and his teammates.
Nicknamed Rust — as he never sleeps — Weatherston, who is the Foodstuffs Dunedin distribution centre manager, managed to play four games for the senior side this year at second fiveeighth and blindside flanker.
‘‘It was good fun having a run around. I think I’ve retired four times but still want to get out there.’’