Old Boys AFC president Hamish Low and Star Rugby Club president ahead of the unique doubleheader at Waverley Park on Saturday.
Waverley Park will host a unique and potentially first-of-its-kind double header at the Invercargill venue on Saturday.
The Star Rugby Club’s Division 2 team will play Midlands at 3pm on the club’s No 1 field before football goalposts are then quickly shuffled in.
Old Boys will then take on Thistle in a premier women’s football fixture on the same ground starting at 5pm. That game will be played under lights.
The concept has been brought about following the formation of the Waverley Hub, which has seen the Star, Old Boys, and Waverley Bowling Clubs searching for ways to work closer together.
The women’s game is one of eight football games to be played at Waverley Park as part of Old Boys’ club day on Saturday.
In another big step for the Waverley Hub, the football and rugby after-match functions will be held together at the Star Rugby/Rugby League Club facility on Saturday evening.
“We’ve been complete rivals, and we’ve come together. It’s exciting,” Old Boys AFC club president Hamish Low told The Tribune.
Star president Andrew McHugh hoped it would lead to Old Boys and Star both operating out of the same clubrooms on a more permanent basis.
“Hopefully it is the beginning of something really special,” McHugh said.
“From a Star perspective, we are certainly open to it, but I appreciate it is a ginormous call for a club like Old Boys to consider it.
“They are the strongest football club, numbers-wise, in Invercargill. Usually when clubs come together there is one club that is struggling. That certainly isn’t the case with Star or Old Boys.”
Between football, rugby union, and rugby league, the clubs have about 700 playing members.
They currently operate out of two different buildings at Waverley Park, but they are working towards changing that.
Low said the plan is to test utilising Star’s clubrooms – starting on Saturday – and show that both clubs have common goals.
“I guess like any club it’s the older members; it is new for them. But hopefully they can see the benefit in it. Obviously, bowls is part of the hub, and whether that’s a flow on, that’s probably the next step.”
Low and McHugh said the biggest attraction to being more closely aligned was the ever-increasing costs which sports clubs faced.
“There is no point doubling up on things on the same afternoon; that seems crazy,” Low said.
“Hopefully it would not just save some money but also give back some time to volunteers so they focus more on the game, and we are not worried about maintaining buildings and that kind of stuff,” Low said.
He added there were other ways the two clubs could support each other at a committee level.
“[The hub] probably started as financial, as the reason behind it, and then it has grown to a better relationship than just saving money,” Low said.
McHugh said duplication at Waverley Park had been happening for years, with things like three liquor licenses, three lots of heating, insurance, and the list went on across the three clubs.
“We need to reduce overheads, and the only way of doing that is starting to share facilities.”
When Star raised funds to put in new lights at Waverley Park last year, McHugh said that while the project was driven by Star, the lights were for the wider community.
He hoped the women’s football game under lights on Saturday was an example of that.