Tough decisions needed to secure Waterloo’s future

Mar 5 2008 by Our Correspondent, Liverpool Daily Post

Tough decisions needed to secure Waterloo’s future

ONCE-MIGHTY Waterloo RUFC are within a fortnight of taking part in what seems sure to be a highly important AGM, followed by a general discussion among members of the club about their plans for the future.

There is now a widespread feeling at Blundellsands that the whole membership must unite and agree a realistic course of action unless they are willing to let their famous club slip into major decline.

As we all know, the game of rugby union has gone all-commercial over the past 20 years or so and clubs have to make up their minds just how far they are prepared to go.

Once fielding one of English rugby’s top sides and producing a stream of internationals like Jack Heaton, Dickie Guest, Reg Bazley, Dick and Will Greenwood, Austin Healey and Ben Kay, Waterloo have inevitably dropped down quite a lot.

Once relegated even below where they are now, the club have been forced to battle on for many years and to sell part of their main ground to keep going, leaving themselves with just one pitch blank at the moment.

They are currently well down the National League Two table and not all that far from the relegation zone.

The squad is also in dire need of strengthening if they wish to continue as a major force – which I am sure most of their members certainly do.

The likelihood is that they will want to find a way back uphill, but they could find it extremely hard to agree on a successful policy and to find people both willing and able to make it work.

If they genuinely want to move forward again and target a division above where they are at the moment, I feel certain they will have to find a new headquarters which can accommodate four or five pitches.

That will mean a lot of hard work, some extremely sound deals and a lot of first class leadership, which is not obviously present at the moment.

Like a lot of others, I hope Waterloo manage to find several of the right people, together with the right solutions and that they manage to emerge as a really powerful and imaginative force, which can complete a major achievement or two.

Much will depend on finding a top leader, persuading the entire membership to join forces in a big way and coming up with an ambitious policy that is also genuinely workable.