Banter with the Brothers: Catching up with CEO Matt Kaye and Lawson Creighton

This week Reds Rugby Rules is putting the spotlight on one of the great clubs in Queensland: Brothers Rugby Club. Earlier this week I sat down with the club’s CEO Matt Kaye, who answered a few of my questions about the club. Then later on in the evening, down at Ballymore, I caught up with Lawson Creighton after Brisbane City training! We talked about Brothers (his rugby club!), the NRC, and other important things.

Brothers Rugby Club: known as "The Family Club" in Brisbane

Thanks to Matt and and Lawson for taking time to catch up! I loved spending time at Brothers.

Brothers had a long and proud history in Australia. Established in 1905, it is the oldest rugby club in Brisbane.
(Note the big picture of the great John Eales, wearing his Brothers uniform.)

Matt Kaye, Club CEO 

The Brothers Premier Grade team had a few wins and quite a few close losses this season. How do you think the team is going to go next year?

We think we’re going to improve. We’ve appointed a new coach in Rob Seib, he’s the Queensland Country coach for the NRC. We’ve got a good group of young players who will be back again for the club. Se we’re working hard again to have a better performance in 2019, a bit of a fresh start and a little bit of a rebuild I suppose, with the new head coach. But we’re excited about the new season and refocusing on our skills and our play and what we do.

Loved seeing all the displays and hearing some of Brothers history

I read about the Brothers Rugby Club Strategic Plan 2018 - 2022. How did this come about and how is it progressing?

Every 4 years we relook at our strategic plan I guess, to ensure that we’re staying ahead of the game, I suppose. For us, it’s about continuing to grow and to get better at the things that we do. So one of the key objectives is to provide better facilities. So we are in a master plan at the moment, which will be a rebuild of the training centers and the club house and repairing the fields as well. 

Hopefully in 3-4 years time, this place will be completely different and it will be up to a high standard when not only the community and the junior players that we have, but also the international teams can train here. We had the Wallabies train here last year which was great and we hope to be able to have other teams train here as well.

The “Brothers Way”,  Club Culture Behaviour Guidelines are a great initiative, how long has it been in place?

That’s a good question. That was developed by the players. So 3-4 years ago, we ran a leadership program for a number of our senior players and they helped develop the framework behind what they want the club to achieve, in behaviour and culture and in terms of what’s acceptable and not acceptable. We’ve really changed our culture over that period of time and there’s not as many, I hate to say it, “dickheads” around. You know, those clubs that don’t have those people, probably build a really strong knit. It is player driven, but it’s also top driven, from the board and the management staff as well. We want to live those values as much as we can.

How does the future look for the Brothers junior competition supporting “grass roots” rugby?

Yeah. Very good. I think there’s a bit of a decline across traditional rugby, in terms of 15-a-side for juniors. But we continue to grow a lot of our external programs.

We’ve got around 350 Sevens players starting in a couple of weeks time after the holidays, we’ve got a girls Sevens program, we’ve got a girls touch football program, which has 846 registered now, playing touch football for the club. So, from a community and a grass-roots point of view, we’re in excess of over two and a half thousand people playing at the club, across “little bros”… If you were here earlier this morning, you would have seen me coaching our three, four and five year old players, through to our Premier grade and our International players. So we’re really excited to continue to grow “non-traditional rugby”, but also the 15-a-side game through our juniors as well. And we’re putting a lot more emphasis on our program development and our coach education, for juniors, over the next 12-18 months. Make better people, make better skills, I suppose.

The “Family Club” motto, based around community values seems to be great concept, do you feel it has boosted the clubs livelihood?

Matt is very happy that his club won the "Doughty Shield"
this year - awarded to the club that does the best across

all grades (based on points accumulation).

It’s a motto that we’ve accepted, because we do cater for everyone. Whether that means we’re including everyone… I think we do. We’re trying to do that with everything we do, we’re trying to be better communicators and respect everyone that’s a part of the club. I think the family value in the club is much bigger than we even realise ourselves. The way we engage with the community from a family point of view… we want to be more than just the local rugby club that people want to come to. We want to be a club that’s known for being accepting, family orientated with a good culture, that sort of thing.

What is your own rugby journey and what led you to do what you’re doing now here at Brothers?

Interesting journey, I think Tom. I’m from Queanbeyan, down near Canberra. I played for the Brumbies B teams, I didn’t make the Brumbies side, back in the day of the 1999-2001 team when they were extremely strong and winning titles. I had 3 knee reconstructions and retired at the age of 22. So, I was very young when I retired and was lucky to get a position at the Brumbies as a development officer and then worked my way through to an academy manager, coach education, before getting an opportunity to coach professionally in Japan for four years.  I originally went there with the CEO of the Melbourne Rebels , Baden Stephenson. Then I stayed there for a few years coaching, before returning to Australia. Then I was lucky enough to get the position of head coach and general manager at Brothers here in the 2011 season, after they played a grand final. I did that from 2012 to 2013. I’ve stopped coaching the Premier team, but I’m full-time just running the club and all aspects of it, from sponsorship, to functions and events, to overseeing the rugby program, and the Brothers Touch association. I also coach a junior under-10s team and a girls sevens team. It’s a Rugby Club, but it’s also a community business looking to provide something back for the community.

Out on the field. Matt told me these are the posts that used to be used at Ballymore.

One of the legends... and one of six Wallabies Captains that have come from Brothers (including John Eales)

Catching up with Lawson Creighton

Lawson's been loving training at Ballmore Stadium.

One great player that represents Brothers is now back in action with Brisbane City. He's just bounced back from an injury and had a few good runs against the Sydney Rays last Saturday. I hope you enjoy reading our interview and getting to know a rising player in Brisbane!

Congrats to you and your team on a great win over the weekend!

It was really good to get back into the winning circle. Obviously, two bad losses, the one in Fiji was pretty bad, but to see it back in the winning circle was good and it's my first game back from an ankle injury. It was good to be on the field again, finally.

What’s been a highlight from the NRC season so far?

I think, just being around some of the big name players, just being able to train with them and to take little things out of their games. Coming into my first year in this sort of professional squad, even just training here is pretty big for me.

What’s your rugby journey? How old were you when you started playing?

Well, I started playing rugby back in high school. I went to Padua College in Kedron and I started playing then. I mostly played league when I was in younger. I finished school, I played a year of colts at Norths, on Shaw Road. Then a couple of the boys left there, I was thinking about going back to league and all my mates from school stopped playing, so I didn't know what to do. My older brother played for Brothers, so when I talked to him, I went over to Brothers. My last year of Colts there, we got done by Uni, that sucked. I've got a couple of Premier grade caps at Brothers now which is really good. This year, I didn't play a lot, I've been in the Reds academy and was lucky enough to play for the Australian Under-20s and went over to France in June, which was an unreal trip. That's where I did my ankle, in the very last game.

It's been pretty wild, this year especially. I've just been a club rugby player and loving it, but this years been massive.

What do you love most about Brothers rugby club?

I think it's a pretty unique culture. Everyone gets around each other, they all mingle... during training, the Colts will train with the Premier grade stuff like that, so you get around a lot of circles and you get to know a lot of people. It's a really good culture and I don't think I'll leave any time soon.

What’s your favourite position to play?

It's a tough one. I play a bit of five-eigth and a bit of full-back. I think I prefer playing at 10 (five-eighth) but I also like the freedom of playing at full-back where you don't have worry about everything. Full-back's isn't as much pressure and you can just enjoy it.

Some of my readers might still be learning about the game of rugby. Can you explain what the five-eigth does in your own words?

I think they just control the team and directs the team around of the field. In a game of rugby, if you've got a good 10 that can direct a team and lead a team, I think you've got a very good chance of winning. So it's a very key role in the team.

What else do you like to do in your spare time, besides rugby?

I think just a Sunday roast at Mum or Dads joint's pretty good, when I get out with my mates it's a pretty good time as well. I wouldn't say working, but I'm an electrician, I'm doing my apprenticeship, so getting that knocked over which is good. So yeah. Overall, just hanging out with mates and a Sunday roast, can't beat that.

Thanks Lawson for taking time to catch up. I’ll continue to cheer you and your team on this season.

Perfect. Thanks Tommy! Up the Brothers.