Meet the Thirroul Butchers

Meet the rugby league club known for nurturing talent for more than a century, writes Brian Kelly.

There sat the Thirroul Butchers, “the best team on the coast” as the club song so keenly affirms, bowling along at the top of the comp (only five teams but someone has to lead), when a limo driver working out of Sydney Airport caught a bug and the whole state got locked up again.

In the context of the world and its ways, the premature stopping of a rugby league competition isn’t overly tragic, but, with the 2020 season canned before a ball could even be kicked, the end of season 2021 frustrated everyone involved with the town’s rugby league club, as first-grade captain Damian Sironen recalls.

“It was super-disappointing for us as a playing group as we felt we had only just started to get into a groove and still had a lot more to show,” says the code journeyman, now 29, vastly experienced and arguably at the peak of his powers.

'Sense of community' draws top talent

The club, taking the field for its 109th season, approaches 2022 with a few dynamic new names in its top grade along with its usual strength and depth bolstered by a tradition of nurturing onfield talent which matures into solid off-field support.

Sironen, a northern NSW product who ended up at Gibson Park via a clutch of NRL clubs and a short spell in the UK, said players had been training well despite the constant drenching that soaked the region in the first few months of the year, and he reckons crowds can expect to see a very fit first-grade side.

“The past few weeks have been difficult to get any footy stuff done due to the weather so we’ve been doing plenty of road run and hills,” he says during a recent round of rain. “The boys are training really well – we’ve been getting plenty of numbers to each sessions, which is great.”

The tall forward with the impressive all-round game came to the blue-and-whites a few years ago when playing with St George Illawarra Dragons. Having missed five games after a serious head knock, coaches thought it was best to ease him back at local level.

“So I was sent to Thirroul and fell in love with the club … it really made me realise how much I missed that sense of community that comes from local club footy,” he says.

It’s a sentiment that all Butcher-folk will recognise, and one club president Brett Jones has lived first-hand.

“The fact that former players and coaches remain involved in the club in different roles and take responsibility for its future is something that separates us from a lot of clubs, I feel,” says Jones, who could well be referring to his own involvement with the Butchers, which began in the under 7s in the mid-70s.

As a hardy ball-playing prop, he graced the paddock with the unbeaten 1995 side and, as a coach, led the side to the incredible achievements of 2003, known in club history as the year “we won everything”.

“The club is rich in history and loyalty and local community and businesses are always behind us, which makes it a really good experience for our players, but there is always expectation for us to be successful, which drives the whole club.”

Who's in the mix for 2022

New players always promise to freshen a side’s fortunes, and Gibson Park regulars will be keen to see how a few unknown – and previously known – faces go in early rounds.

Back in the blue and white stripes come Harry Leddy and Steve Marsters, giving first-grade coach Jarrod Costello a few more options up front and out wide.

“Harry can play half, No.9 or lock and has played Ron Massey Cup and NSW Cup at Mounties – he played for Thirroul in the 2020 Presidents Cup,” Costello says.

“Steve played NRL at South Sydney last season and is a Thirroul junior. He can play in a number of positions in the backline and will add a lot of strike to our team.”

Costello says the player ranks were largely unaffected by COVID-19 over the off-season and that they have looked keen since returning to training in mid-January.

He says the first six weeks of training had been focused on conditioning and fundamental skills. When they progressed to March, practice sessions became more football-focused and work began on how the Butchers wanted to play.

“We were leading the competition and looking pretty good when it was abandoned last year due to Covid,” he says, “and the best way for us to place ourselves in that position again is by training hard through the preseason.

“It is a new season so nothing we did last year counts; we need to start again and re-establish ourselves. It will be a different competition in 2022 with eight teams and fewer weeks off throughout the draw so preparing well is key.”

Other new signings include Wayne Bremner, a specialist fullback and former Paul McGregor Medalist (for the best player in the Illawarra competition), and forward Monty Raper, who has been in Cronulla’s NRL squad and most recently with Newtown Jets in the NSW Cup.

Tom Simpson, a middle forward, returns to the squad after a knee reconstruction.

Costello says he anticipates that Thirroul’s forwards line-up would be fairly similar to last year’s.

“Sironen, Josh Starling, Ryan Fletcher and Luke Dodge will lead that group well again,” he says. “We will have some new combinations in our backs with Brem and Stevie coming into the team.

“We will try a few combinations at training and see what suits our team best – we have options, which is great. So I am confident we will find the right mix for the group.”

'Pretty competitive' season ahead

It won’t be just players who are completely foreign to the Thirroul faithful as the season unfolds; two clubs never seen in the Illawarra before make their competition debuts this year, and old friends/foes the Helensburgh Tigers, are also returning to the fold.

Sironen admitted the newcomers – Cronulla-Caringbah and De La Salle – were a fairly unknown quantity to him.

“To be honest, I don’t really know much about either team or how they will go,” he said. “We’ve got a few Cronulla boys in our team and I think they know a few blokes from up there.

“They’ve got a pretty large catchment area so I’m assuming they’re going to be pretty competitive. It’s great to have some more teams in the comp as last year was pretty dismal with just five.”

Over the past few decades, the Thirroul Butchers have been consistently competitive and often dominant, but they are far from being the bully-boys of the Illawarra Rugby League. It’s been 10 years since they were premiers, but a reason to “once more raise our glasses and drink another toast” (that club song keeps coming back) never seems far away.