Welcome To The Rye Football & Netball Club

Major Raffle now on sale drawn on Sunday October the 20th at the club rooms. Free beer, wine and lunch for all ticket holders. $35,000 up for grabs for the 1st Prize and 5 Prizes at $1,000. Please hit the shopping Tab at the top RH side of the screen, to purchase a ticket. A maximum of 800 tickets to be sold and only $100 per ticket. 

Some tremendous news off the field to report. 

 Some big signings “Off the Field” to go with the previous news a few weeks back with Troy Harris and Mitch Harris accepting the Coaching roles as Coach and Assistant Coach of our Under 19 team for season 2020.

 The Reserves Coach for season 2020 will be Alan Barnes.

Alan or Barnsey as he is known by, was a champion player from 1986 to 1995, at Rye, coming to the club from West Meadows. A tenacious and skilled rover, who won the MPNFL league B & F in Div 1 in 1988 and also the club B & F in the same year, he played 169 senior games at Rye. The father of current player Clayton Barnes, Alan will be a fantastic acquisition to the coaching team in 2020.

Senior Assistant Coaches 2020 

With Chad Ambrose staying on board in 2020, and Ryan Williams taking on the playing Assistant Coach role, it is fantastic news to report, that we are adding another 2 outstanding people to our coaching ranks, Barry Besanko and Ian “Rabbit” Birkett, will join the team in 2020. 

Barry played three games in late 1980’s with Essendon in the VFL. He then became captain-coach of Dingley in 1983 before rejoining Essendon as a specialist coach in 1984 and 1985. Then Coaching Rye in 1986 & 1987, where he played 32 games and took the seniors to the preliminary final in 1986, where they were narrowly beaten by Seaford. He was appointed fitness advisor at St Kilda for season 1988. In the last 2 season Barry has been a specialist sprint coach back the Essendon Football Clubin the AFL. 

As well as being a League footballer, he was also one of Australia’s fastest sprinters, winning many Victorian Sprint Championships

In the Australian Track & Field Championships, his best performances included a second-place finish in the 100 metres in 1976-77 and four successive top three finishes in the 200m, finishing second in 1978-79.  He was also a member of the Victorian team that won the 4 x 100 metres relay final in 1977-78, and Internationally, Besanko represented Oceania at the 1977 IAAF World Cup in West Germany and the 1979 IAAF World Cup in Canada.  At both World Cups he was a finalist in the 4 x 100 metres relays, placing seventh each time. His best individual performance at a World Cup came in 1979, when he made the 200 metres final and finished eighth.

Welcome back, Barry.

Another of our new Assistant Coaches in 2020 and we have been trying to get this guy involved for many years at our club, is the appointment Ian “Rabbit” Birkett as our non – playing senior Assistant Coach. Ian joins Chad Ambrose, Barry Besanko and Ryan Williams as the Assistant Coach team under Adam Kirkwood. Ian will be the running the bench on match days and be one of the Senior Assistant Coaches.

Ian has had a successful playing career with plenty of highlights and premiership success.

With over 400 games at Burwood United and Mt Waverley, Ian has also won 4 league Best and Fairest awards to go with his 2 league leading goal kicking awards, plus a number of club B and F awards. He is a hall of fame inductee of the Southern Football League.

An under 19 premiership coach at Wantirna South and a Senior Assistant Premiership Coach twice, Ian brings an unbelievable wealth of knowledge and success to our club.

There will be a player and coach get together planned in the coming weeks.

A tremendous night was held at the club on Saturday July the 20th, for our Teams of the Decade (2006 – 2015), celebration. Where the best team of that decade was announced and presented. All the player in attendance were presented up on stage and had time to tell their unique story and the parts they played in that decade. What a side it was, many players from the 2006 premiership made the list, plus having played in finals for most past of that decade, the list of players who made the side was extremely strong and those that missed out were very unlucky. We had 20 of the 22 players selected in the side there present on the night which was fantastic.

For all the photos on the night please click on the below link.

http://ryepixels.com/2019/07/21/rye-football-club-team-of-the-decade-2006-2015-rj-rowley-reserve-rye-20-july-2019/

Founded in 1946, The Rye Football Club  has played in 20 senior grand finals, winning 8 premierships. A proud and strong club on and off the field , one of the club’s outstanding achievements in its 73 years, is that there has only ever been 5 Presidents, Wilfred Rowley 1946 – 58, Clarrie Jennings 1959 – 79, Nick Appleford 1980 -95, Colin Beel 1996 – 2001 and current President and Rye legend Mick O’Rourke who took over in 2002.

Netball is now an integral part of the club and since its inception in 2009, has been overwhelmingly successful, playing in 6 A Grade grand finals and winning 3. The club now has 5 Netball sides, the Under 17’s, and A, B, C and D Grade teams.