News

Counties Manukau club leaders have voted Manurewa’s Renee Maxwell onto the CMRFU board and appointed Patumahoe’s Danny Hodson and Puni’s Tara Coe onto the Community Rugby Subcommittee.

The leaders of all Counties Manukau Rugby clubs, along with representatives from the Counties Manukau Rugby Referees’ Association and Counties Maori Rugby, met as a collective for the first time on Tuesday night at Navigation Homes Stadium following last month’s Special General Meeting which saw a new Constitution adopted.

The changes resulted in clubs having the ability to appoint three people directly onto the CMRFU board while a new Community Rugby Committee was established to run the senior community game. The Community Rugby Committee replaced the old Council of Delegates (CODs) structure.

Maxwell will join the board immediately as an interim Club Rugby Director alongside former CODs chairman Andy Baker and his deputy Trevor Strang. All three club stalwarts will need to re-apply for their positions in February next year.

The Club Rugby Directors will also form part of the new Community Rugby Committee alongside Tuesday night’s appointees Hodson and Coe, Glen Blackwell from the Referees’ Association and CMRFU Head of Community Rugby Matt Megaw.

At the same Club Leaders’ Meeting, it was also confirmed that former CMRFU President Hugh Chapman (Ardmore Marist) and long-time community rugby servant Gary Robertson (Papakura) would join the Board Appointments Panel to interview applicants for the CMRFU board in February next year.

Under a Board Transition Plan adopted at the SGM, all existing directors other than chair Gary Millington, will stand down in February and apply to the Board Appointments Panel if they wish to return as a director.  

The Community Rugby Committee will begin work immediately on planning for the 2024 senior club rugby season.