If your interested ask the referee or at the desk for a voucher and a copy of the menu and get along to the Great Northern for great food, drink, and atmosphere.

Come join us at the Great Northern Hotel, the perfect spot to while away a summer’s eve. We have a massive beer garden out back serviced by Kipper’s Bar. There’s also a cosy snug area for respite from the sun. We have 16 beers on tap, offering Australia’s finest, including Feral White and Hop Hog IPA, Taxi Pilsner and Mountain Goat Steam Ale.  We also have international highlights including Trumer Pils on tap, and a range of imported boutique bottles, as well as home town heroes like Carlton Draft.

With five big screens playing all sporting codes, The Great Northern is the place to be this summer.

The Great Northern Hotel
644 Rathdowne St, Carlton North
Ph : 9380 9569
Fx : 9381 2476
email: gnh@live.com.au

This season RPT has grown by 25%. This along with the retirement of some key experienced referees means that we need to expand our referee base. As such we will be initiating a referee bonus system. All teams with a nominated referee will get a bonus point for every game refereed by that player or three bonus points for any player who completes a level 1 referees course.

The bonus points will be capped at three points per team.

There are two free level one referees courses on the 30th of October and 5th of November. Referees are vital to Touch so please spread the word.

Draw

A draw for the first round and a calendar for the various rounds throughout the year has beeen published here: http://www.royalparktouch.com/season-draw/

Like last season the first two weeks of the season will be grading rounds. These rounds along with your team nomination will be used to determine your teams ultimate grade for regular season play. Please note that given our expansion this season there are some new teams so mismatches in grading may occurr. But grading enables us to match teams closely over the remainder of the season.

Team Entry

Due to a large number of entries received on the 29th of September 2011 we have currently reached our official capacity of 30 teams. We asked council for an additional field to accommodate extra teams. All team entries after the 29th of September will subject to the Melbourne City Council’s allocation of an additional field or an existing team pulling out.

Update 11/10/2011. We are still waiting on MCC and have ben told that a decision should made shortly. No reason has been given by MCC for the delay in making a decision.

Further details of team entry are below:

To enter a team please download and complete the following Team Registration Form
and email it through to royalparktouch@gmail.com. If you have not collected all your players details do not worry (additional names can be added later), please ensure the following are details are recorded:

• Team name
• Captains details (phone number and email)
• Preferred grade, B-D2 (note we have two weeks of grading rounds so this is indicative only).

The total cost per team is $A1,140 for the season (all inclusive), deposit is $450 (this is required before the first game).

Individual players
RPT will try to place individual players into team right up to the commencment of the season. If you are an individual player wishing to be placed in an existing team visit Individual Players and follow the instructions.

Or for any other enquiries please contact us on:

• Peter Shaw (Mob) 0414 315 957
  E-mail: royalparktouch@gmail.com
• Toby Cooper (Mob) 0418 180 293
  E-mail: royalparktouch@gmail.com

For those who wish to continue playing over Winter in the inner north they is an option.  Due to the field renovations taking place at Cordner Oval, Fawkner Park Touch will not run this winter. However MCC have allocated some fields a JJ Holland park to cover.

Details are below:

Kensington Competition

The facility is located at JJ Holland Park in Kensington. It is synthetic surface which is located next to South Kensington Train Station which is only one stop from North Melbourne Station. Parking is also available near the station.

• Monday: 6:15pm – 10:00pm
• Grades: Social Mixed B to E & Social Men’s B to E
• Wednesday: 7:00pm – 10:00pm
• Grades: Social Mixed B to E, Social Men’s B to E and Social Women’s B & C

Places will be limited due to field availability. Contact details are:
Touch Football Australia – Victoria
Sports House
Level 2 375 Albert Road
ALBERT PARK VIC 3206
tel: 03 9206 6755
fax: 03 9206 6766

info@victouch.com.au
www.victouch.com.au

Results:

http://www.royalparktouch.com/season-draw/

some other thing to note are:

Final round free BBQ

Get some snags

The BBQ will be back this week and snags will be provided free of chanrge. We will also be having refreshments available for purchase. The BBQ is situated next to the desk area.

So if your hungry, thirsty or just fancy a snag you know where to come…

Grand Final uniforms and conditions

For those playing in grand finals please note the following. The uniform policy will be enforced i.e. all teams members must be in a uniform and have a unique number on the back (taped numbers are acceptable). Secondly as we are limited by daylight in the event of a tied game the higher team on the ladder will be crowned champion (drop offs will not apply).

Great Northern Hotel

Following the final time slot we will be adjourning to the Great Northern Hotel for presentations and an end of season drink. Please come a get a dink voucher from the desk and join us there.

Full details of times and the draw are as usual available here, due to the chance and final ladders positions it would appear several teams in the finals are playing the same team for a second week in a row in the semi finals, this is not an error.

http://www.royalparktouch.com/season-draw/

A draw will then be published for the remainder of the regular season (rounds 7 – 12) but not including our final two weeks (rounds 13 and 14) which are finals/playoff rounds (teams not playing finals, playoff for positions 5-8).

A draw for the season is available here:

http://www.royalparktouch.com/season-draw/

If you are after some additional players I have quite a few individual males, females, and some couples looking for a game at Royal Park, please let me know if you are after some additional players and I will put you in touch. We always try to get everyone a game at RPT.

Any questions please let me know. I look forward to seeing you all on the field.

Individual players

Every year RPT places lots of individual players in teams. If you are an individual player wishing to be placed in a team visit Individual Players and follow the instructions.

If you are an individual player who has already contacted us we will be in contact with you shortly.

Uniforms penalties begin next week.

We have received some questions about uniforms and what constitutes a uniform at RPT. For the first five rounds the only requirement is that a team is clothed in tops (t-shirt, polo, etc) of a similar colour. The tops do not need to be the same nor of exactly the same colour but they do need to be close enough that the referee can tell they are the same team.

After round four teams may be penalised for players not in uniform. The penalty will be in the form of tries per player not clothed in matching top awarded to the non offending team (up to a maximum of 3 tries).

After round five the same policy to unique numbers on the back, numbers can be in taped on but they must be legible to the referee.

Weather

Several people have asked me what our policies are with respect to weather. At RPT we only cancel or postpone games if we consider conditions dangerous for our players. The two primary examples of this are:

•  Lightning in the imminent area such that it may strike competitors (this will generally be judged on the night)
• Extreme heat,  which we interpret as temperatures above 38 degrees

If the temperature is above 30 degrees we may also vary the game length or breaks on the night for player comfort. Games are not generally cancelled if it is simply wet or windy.

Royal Park Touch’s referees

A wrap up of grand final results and general photos from the final round can be found below the fold.

February 11th was the final round of touch at Royal Park and it was Grand finals for some but touch for all as the BBQ’s were fired upped and the beers cracked open to celebrate the season’s conclusion.

In social grade D2 Virgin Jokers were up against Trev and Barb. Both teams had been in the competition for many seasons but never cracked it for a GF win. In the end the Jokers got up 3-2.

In D1 Can’t Touch This played Tiggy Touchwood who were looking to go back to back with premierships in D2 and D1 in consecutive seasons. But it was the new boys from Can’t Touch This who won by a single try in a very tight and high standard contest.

In C grade it was Dunneworthy who started in the competition in 2000/01 against the new guys from the Panthers. The result was a narrow upset win to Dunneworthy for their first win north of the Yarra, after many years of trying.

In the top grade last years premiers Novacastrians were up against the big improvers over the year Easy Touchy Tiger. The result was a win to Easy Touchy Tiger who gradual improvement over the season saw them finally get passed the Novacastrians in the big one.

In the wrap up senior referee Cliff Winnett remarked on the massive improvement over the season by all teams and that plenty of the winners were teams who had played in the competition for some time.

The president of the competition Peter Shaw added that the excellent spirits and great attitude of the players and referees in all games (not just finals) in final round like the whole season had lived up to the motto of the Royal Park Touch which is:

“Social touch in the heart of melbourne”

A gallery of some photos from the day is available here: