A big welcome to all Hawks Supporters, sponsors and guests for today’s Premier 1 league match against title contenders, Currie. A special welcome goes to Currie President, John Muir, coach, Ally Donaldson and their respective ‘teams’. Today’s match will be a tough one for us given Currie’s push for the title and the fact that they are an excellent all-round side as was evidenced by our heavy defeat at Malleny Park earlier in the season. However given the fact that we are in a much better position , league wise, than we were at this stage in the past two seasons (where we were staring relegation in the face), and the fact that we are still in with a shout for a fourth place finish, then it is expected that a much closer contest will occur today. There is an added incentive in that fourth place in Premier 1 may be enough to clinch a place in next season’s British and Irish Cup if negotiations go the way of the desires of the Scottish Premier clubs. There is a lot of work to be done for this to occur but it is certainly up for discussion and hence something to aim for.

The 2nd XV despite a slip up in their last outing against Watsonians remain in 2nd place in their league and with such a young side the future looks bright. Today the 2s take on Aberdeen GSFP across the fence at New Anniesland.

Behind the scenes, the Board are busy in a number of areas. Firstly, while we undertake a review of how the club is structured and operates, we have filled the gap left by the movement of Kenny Baillie to the Warriors by appointing a part time commercial manager in Zena Melki. Zena is a present implementing a new supporters and sponsors management system which will allow us to communicate more clearly, consistently and frequently to all our supporters and sponsors and this will ensure that everyone is kept up to date with news, events, community initiatives, sponsorship packages and of course matches. Zena will also be the contact point for all sponsors and she will be in regular contact with all existing and new sponsors.

In other projects, a complete overhaul of the Supporters’ Club is taking place so watch out for news of how we propose to operate this and a new Board structure is being worked on. This new structure will enable key projects to take place, will ensure support for Zena’s activities and will also result in a more effective running of the ‘business’ side of the club.

Our local community work continues at pace run by Development manager, Grant Talbot assisted by Director of Rugby, Peter Wright and several associate coaches. As well as supporting our three independent schools, extensive work is being done in the state sector with major rugby development programmes taking place in a total of 16 primary schools and 3 secondary schools in the Knightswood, Drumchapel, Yoker and Scotstoun areas of the North and West of Glasgow. Given the fact that these areas are traditionally ‘football country’ the community projects in these areas are long term development projects but already Grant and his team are making good progress in attracting more and more kids to the benefits of taking up rugby. To this end, the Glasgow Hawks Mini section is all set to be launched. There are enough kids now signed up to start the section and we await news of a ‘home’ (either Scotstoun or Drumchapel Park) .Watch this space.

Finally, on the Youth front, all our best wishes go to the Hawks Under 15s who take on North Berwick Under 15s in the semi final of the Scottish Bowl this Sunday at Old Anniesland. The Kick Off is at 2pm and we would encourage all Hawks Supporters and friends to come out and give both teams every encouragement.

Enjoy today’s match (and Sunday’s!)


Allan Mackintosh
Chairman, Glasgow Hawks.

This article was posted on 19-Feb-2010, 13:53 by Hugh Barrow.