AMNRL South Running at Top Speed

Former Tomahawk and AMNRL South Development Manager, Daryl “Spinner” Howland will lead a six-man fact finding team to Australia this month. Spinner will be heading to Australia on May 6th to train with a team in the a local Australian Competition to learn first hand the latest coaching techniques, fitness drills, game strategies and team management.

He will be joined later in the month by 3 players from the local Jacksonville Rugby Union side. The inclusion of these players will not only expose them to the game as a way to attract potential players but also to ensure that the two codes can have a partnership from the start and exist together and help each other grow.

Also joining the team will be a local Jacksonville area politician who will be invaluable with advice on local support and options once the team is operational. The sixth member of the team is a Marketing and Advertising professional who will look at the strategies used to market the sport in Australia from both the Club point of view and also the sponsor side. He will look at smaller regional clubs to see how they attract sponsors, build revenue and fully fund themselves as a professional organization.

The team will return to the United States in early June and begin work on exhibition games for 2005 and be ready for the full AMNRL season in 2006.

A trip to England to look primarily at sponsorships and revenue generation with some of the very successful regional teams has also been discussed.