Tigers Co-Coach Derek Hay will be leading the Tigers with Co Coach Blake Dunn in 2024.
The Gundagai Tigers have been a powerhouse in Group 9 over the last nine years. It hasn’t always been this way. Prior to the 2010s, the club went through plenty of tough years in what has been known as the toughest bush footy competition in NSW. The Tigers had a premiership drought from 1983 until 2015 although the lack of continued success wasn’t from a lack of trying. They were runners-up in 1984 and went incredibly close in 1993 and 1994 going down 24-10 to Turvey Park and 24-20 to Wagga Kanagaroos. They strung together another two Grand Final appearances in 2003 and 2004 going down 31-10 to cross town rivals Tumut and went down by just a try, 28-24 to the Temora Dragons in 2006. In 2009 they were back in the GF, this time, soundly beaten by the Kangaroos 42-4. This loss appeared to fire the Tigers up having lost 7 Grand Finals, nearly all to close score lines. Come 2011 and the Tigers were back in the big dance, this time going down to South City by 2 points in a 20-18 loss. Albury were at their peak and they won a three-peat defeating Gundagai in 2013.
The 2010s were going to be the years of the Tiger and they made 8 Grand Finals between 2011 and 2022, winning four of them in 2015, 2018, 2020 and 2022. Current Captain and Co/Coach Derek Hay has been a Tiger nearly all his life. He’s been around the club for more than 20 years and started playing for them as an 8 year old. Son of former Tiger and current committee member Marty Hay, Derek played all his juniors with the club. He started playing in 2005 and played all the way through until he finished school. He moved away and spent a year in Wollongong before he went to the Canberra Raiders for a year where he played in the Canberra Competition. After that it was back to the coast where he signed to play in South Newcastle before he unluckily broke his leg in 2019. He decided to move home and coached the U18s side for two years.
He first cracked the top side at Gundagai as a 17 year old and an 18 year old. He has the experience of being there when times have been good and premierships flowed and when times have been harder such as last year when the First Grade side didn’t reach the lofty expectations that both he, his team mates and the town have come to expect. It’s something that he wants to change in 2024 and alongside Co/Coach Blake Dunn, they are setting about making those changes now to put Gundagai in a position where they can give themselves the best possible chance of Grand Final success. All while bringing along a new playing group who are young and enthusiastic, some still learning what is needed in Group 9 to be competitive week in and week out.
Derek said, “I was lucky enough to win a comp in 2020 but I played quite a lot of first grade for Gundagai when I was 17 and 18. I played most of the season in 2015 when we won the comp and it was great to be a part of that team.” 2015 was a great year for Derek who was in the same squad as Mika Sivo and Cameron Woo aswell as Dane O’Hehir. Derek said, “Just the memories of playing with those sides, to be the coach of Gundagai and win a premiership would be great. Derek talks of the times in the 1990s when the club was struggling against larger towns and there was limited numbers. He said, “It’s those guys who did it tough and kept the club going who I want to win for.” The current committee and the widespread support the club receives from the community from the canteen workers to those cooking the barbeque, social media uploads and handing out water bottles culminates in a club that shares the love around and knows how to deliver success. Derek and Blake agreed a couple of days after the season finished that they were both pretty keen to do the job again. Derek said, “You don’t want to end on a note like that. I wanted to do two years and that’s locked in. Two years might be enough for me, it’s all about this year and worry about next year then.”
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Currently 26, Derek has a wise head on his shoulders and knows that managing the players can be difficult when you aren’t on the field. He likes to lead by example. He broke his jaw in 2023 and conceded it wasn’t the best for him or the team. “It’s hard asking guys to do something I couldn’t do on the field myself at the time. You can’t ask anything of the boys you couldn’t do for them. There’s a lot more bases to cover as a First Grade coach on game day.” Derek knows it’s a big job and takes it seriously. He said, “There is so much passion for footy in Gundagai, we are basically a one sport town, when things are going well everyone is with you and when things get tough, everyone can get an opinion and you can’t change things for just one person.” Derek highlighted a number of areas he wanted to see the side improve in. “Goal line defence is a big thing. We have to tweak things. You can make all the excuses in the world, we did have injuries last year, but we weren’t good enough on game day. Derek signalled out the goal line defence as “disgraceful” and both he and Blake hit the recent history books to see if that feeling was justified. It was. Derek said, “Blake and I got together and we worked out that if the opposition didn’t score more than 12 points Gundagai would win 95 percent of their games.
Both he and Dunn did the stats for 20, 21 and 22 and the defence let in less than 12 points on average over those years. He said, “Last year every time we turned the ball over in our red zone, 75 percent of the time, they scored. I don’t think we wanted to do the hard stuff on our own line. It comes down to attitude, it doesn’t matter how much technique or coaching you do at this level, it comes down to commitment. But in saying that, there’s still plenty of guys learning their trade and how important it is with that one on one defence. If we can start getting things right in that department we will improve. This was highlighted by the fact they played Wagga Kangaroos twice and in those matches Gundagai was down about 24 points in the first 20 minutes but won the rest of the game, not quite getting the points at the end of the match after they fought back.
Derek praised Blake for the contribution that he makes and although he isn’t playing in 2024 he will be putting his excellent Rugby League brain to good use at training and providing much needed game day management of the team and the bench, as he analyses the match from the sideline and witnesses the little things that Derek may miss while he is immersed in battle. Come half-time when the two come together, Derek can give a candid assessment of how it’s going on the field and Blake can explain what he is seeing off it. It’s like having two generals, one in the battle and one on the hill ready to make the next move. Derek said, “Blake does a lot of planning, I’m the on field captain, on game day he will do his role and it will free me up to play the way I need to.
People expect success now and there has been a changing of the guard, especially after 2022. We have a lot of young kids there now and we need to foster them. You need juniors coming through and we don’t have a hell of a lot. We need to bring these young kids through and if it takes a few years of hard work and it ensures the survival of our footy club, that is more important to me and Blake.” The Tigers train on Tuesday and Thursday nights at 6pm. At their first session they conducted some baseline testing where players ran a 1.2km time trial which will no doubt be married up with times recorded later in the year. With 2024 training now in full swing, watch this space.
