Feel-good factor helps to drive DAC Kowloon rugby forward, with men’s and women’s teams contenders at the top – SCMP

read original story at SCMP
  • New acting general manager Montana Heslop and men’s coach Joe Barker bringing a community feel to King’s Park
  • Fresh approach off the field has translated into good results on it

DAC Kowloon’s chances were not exactly written off at the start of the Dettol Hong Kong Men’s Premiership, but there are few who would have predicted just how far the club has come.

Six games into the season and just a single point separates them from leaders Natixis Hong Kong Football Club at the top of the table, ahead of Saturday’s clash between the two sides at King’s Park.

That their women’s team are enjoying a successful time on the pitch might also have once been considered surprising, but times are changing at the club on and off the field. 

A first win in the club’s history over Kroll USRC Tigers Ladies has propelled the women’s side into second in their league, and it’s made everyone sit up and take notice of what is going on.

For new acting general manager Montana Heslop, and the men’s head coach Joe Barker, a fresh approach has been the catalyst for change. But these two “new faces with new ideas”, are also leaning on some old-school rugby traditions.

Duncan Swanson, the Kowloon scrum half, gets the ball away from the back of a ruck during his side’s Premiership game against Sandy Bay. Photo: Ike Li

Kiwi Heslop has only been in the role for the past five months, but says the experience so far has been about “bringing a few things from back home in terms of making it a club that perhaps have been missing”.

Instilling cohesion and support across all the teams has been a big part of what the pair have tried to do, in many ways emulating the way clubs in their respective countries have always tried to operate.

“We’re building the foundations and giving it a club feel, that will take time, but we’re seeing the effects of that,” said Barker, who comes from Wakefield in England.

Connections with community sides in Sai Kung and Discovery Bay have seen an injection of fresh blood at youth level. “We’re trying to make a link with it all, and get people to understand it, and grow it,” Barker said.

By their own admission there has been something of a disconnect across the club in the past, be that within the men’s and women’s teams themselves, or between the various age groups and sports that make up the wider Kowloon community.

Heslop’s arrival, alongside two other Kiwis in Braxton Walker and Shae Whareaorere, has changed the dynamic in the women’s team. As the first three female overseas players to be brought into the club, the trio have made it their business to “get to know everyone”.

“We did have quite a split between the local girls and the western girls,” Heslop said. “But there are a bunch of new young girls from Discovery Bay, some from Sandy Bay, and myself, Shae and Brax.

“We’ve helped bring the two sides together, because we’re trying to get to know everyone, so trying to get more cohesion, as opposed to the way it was in the past.”

Prop Braxton Walker on the charge for Kowloon. Photo: Prezz Images Plus

Barker, meanwhile, believes part of the change in the team spirit among the men can be put down to the recent loss of the rugby union’s elite programme status. Where before there was a divide, “now they are all in the same boat”.

“There are no professional boys who are half in, half out, [who just] turn up on a Thursday for training,” he said. “They are actually well into the club stuff, and now they’ve all got jobs, actual jobs, they understand what the others have been going through.”

That cohesion has extended across the teams, through the club, into training, and on to match days, too. The top men’s and women’s squads train at the same time midweek, and Heslop and Barker have introduced an icebreaker session at the start of each session.

This typically takes the form of some sort of challenge, with even a spin of “rock, paper, scissors” getting “quite rowdy” at one point.

“Last week we had the old boys’ team and the premiership team make a big tunnel for us [before the game against Tigers], and the girls have never had that before,” Heslop said.

With all that in mind, Saturday has been designated as a club day, with five sides in action, all playing at different levels. Members of the netball and cricket teams have been invited along, as have past players, including the club’s first captain and one of its original founders, David Lacey.

“There are 200 old boys that have been invited, and these are those values and things that we are trying to bring in a little bit more,” Heslop said. “These are things you would naturally do back at home, and these are things people are starting to see and buy into the club a bit more.”

But things at Kowloon don’t end with the feel-good factor. Results are needed. Kowloon’s men have already beaten their Football Club rivals once this year, and Barker makes no bones about his intentions for the season.

“I’ve always said we don’t play the game to lose, we do want to win everything, but we are trying lots of different things and it’s coming off, and it’s a great environment to be involved in, no matter what happens,” he said. “There’s a nice feeling around the club at the moment.”