Mandurah Storm Rugby League club gains traction for seniors team

"When I first came to the Mandurah Storm Rugby League Club, it was to coach the under 6's and let my kids play," Geary said. "There was no seniors side and teams above the under 12's were pretty much non existent."

After a while, Geary noticed the club was losing juniors to clubs which had both junior and senior teams, allowing for families to play together for the same club

"You lose a lot of families without a seniors team. Parents don't want kids to be playing in different clubs - so I noticed that not having the seniors was really hurting us."

Alongside the former president of the club, Geary worked to form their first seniors team - but they had their work cut out for them.

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"People had enquired over the years so I said 'yep - I'll put a team together' - so I took the field myself and recruited my brothers, my uncle and my cousins.

"We needed 13 players to qualify to play and about half of them were my family," he laughed.

Geary threw himself into the challenge entirely, using his business to sponsor the team.

Unfortunately, having only 13 out of the recommended 20 players meant the team had trouble keeping up with the opposition, which reflected on the scoreboards.

"It was a tricky position to be in - noone wants to join a team that gets beaten over and over again. We had a lot of people keen, but they didn't want to commit until the team was succeeding."

Geary eventually became president of the Mandurah Storm Rugby League Club, and focused heavily on building his seniors team from the ground up - but this wasn't the end of the adversity.

"One of my brothers broke his back while playing and is still recovering," he said. "Three of us brothers are still playing - there's always at least one Geary on the field."

After three years of hard work and unwavering determination, it seems the club's work paid off.

"We had 35 registrations. For the first time ever, 22 players rocked up to the previous game, which is two players over the maximum capacity."

The club will host its first home game this week, which was previously a struggle, being forced to share space with other clubs.

"It's awesome - it's like hard work paying off. We have an amazing women's side too. The club still has a long way to go, but we're hoping to continue growing and also allowing a pathway for juniors coming up through the ranks."

For enquiries about joining the Mandurah Storms, email presidentmandurahstorm@gmail.com - and to follow the team visit Mandurah Storm Seniors on Facebook.