Bottom of the Ruck Club Ops 101 Series

Editor’s Note — Behind the Scenes of Clubland
This article marks the second article in a new Bottom of the Ruck series taking an honest look at the off the field realities of running a grassroots rugby club. The series aims to pull back the curtain on what it actually takes to run a rugby club. The unglamorous, essential, behind-the-scenes work that keeps clubland alive. From managing volunteers and governance to finances, facilities, and culture, this series is about the work that happens when nobody’s watching. All of the emails, the planning, the problem‑solving, and the people holding it all together. The goal isn’t to criticize or overwhelm, but to share lessons learned, spark better conversations, and help clubs build systems that are sustainable for the long haul. 

Why “We’ve Always Done It This Way” Is a Poor Strategy

Grassroots rugby is built on tradition that rivals any sport in the world. Clubhouses carry stories on their walls. Old jerseys hang like sacred relics. Pictures of teams from through the years. Matchday routines get passed down like lineout calls and backline moves, codified through repetition and reinforced through trust. Post match traditions that stand the test of time. 

Tradition is one of rugby’s greatest strengths.

But tradition has a darker side. It can be weaponized to keep us stuck. When tradition hardens into defiant resistance, it quietly becomes one of the biggest threats a club can face. Imagine the feel of the crushing weight of tradition.

“We’ve always done it this way” often sounds comforting. Familiar. Safe.

But in club operations, in your professional career, and even in your personal life, it can also mean something else.

We’ve stopped questioning whether this still works.

And that’s a dangerous place to be for you or for your club.

The Real Cost of “Always”

Most clubs don’t fail because of bad people or lack of passion. Far from it. They fail because the world shifts and the club doesn’t.

Sometimes the obstacles are unavoidable. A shrinking population in a catchment area. Economic downturn. Field access issues. Increased costs to travel. Natural disasters. Variables that are uncontrollable. 

But often, the biggest challenges are internal: systems that outlived their usefulness years ago.

Common symptoms:

• Volunteer burnout caused by outdated role expectations
• Financial strain from inefficient fundraising models
• Admin bottlenecks because “only one person knows how”
• Stagnation of membership
• Missed growth opportunities (youth, women’s, non-contact variations, community partnerships)

And here’s the thing, the phrase itself isn’t malicious. It’s usually spoken by someone who cares deeply. Someone who built something with sweat equity when there were no road maps, no templates, no Club Ops 101 articles floating around the internet (Note: there still aren’t many of them).

But caring alone doesn’t make a system infallible or sustainable. 

I’ve seen clubs run the same fundraiser every year. I’ve been involved in some of them myself. The one that used to be a gold mine. The one that was once a fundraising cornerstone. The one everyone remembers fondly. 

But now? It is barely worth the effort after expenses while swallowing up large amounts of volunteer time. The club keeps it alive on nostalgia alone (because we always have) and nobody wants to be the person to say, “This doesn’t work anymore.”

Recruiting is another excellent example. Every club deals with this dilemma. No one is immune. The way that we brought in players 10, 15, 20 years ago is not effective today. People don’t magically stumble into your club because you posted a flyer at the gym. 

We’re competing for a dwindling amount of free time in people’s lives and the competition is tougher than ever. Marketing and recruiting have changed dramatically and clubs that don’t adapt get left behind, wondering where all the players went. 

Nostalgia is a tool to use, but not a business model.

Tradition Should Guide, Not Handcuff

There’s a difference between honoring the past and being shackled to it.

Your club’s heritage matters. Your stories matter. Your jersey presentations. Your club songs. The way your elders speak about tours from the old days like they were classic tales of adventure. That’s rugby culture and it needs to be protected.

But most operational processes don’t need to be historic artifacts.

Tradition is culture. Operations are logistics. Don’t confuse the two.

When clubs refuse to adapt their systems, they unintentionally protect inefficiency instead of culture. They cling to broken processes as if updating them is some kind of betrayal.

It’s not. 

The Volunteer Trap

One of the most dangerous outcomes of “we’ve always done it this way” is volunteer dependency.

Same people.
Same jobs.
Same stress.
Year after year.

It’s the same invisible workload nobody applauds until it’s gone. Eventually, those volunteers don’t step away. They burn out in a ball of flames and never come back. When they leave, the club realizes too late that the system only worked because of heroics, not structure.

A club shouldn’t need heroics to function.

Here’s the harsh reality: if your club can’t survive a volunteer stepping away, you don’t have a volunteer problem. You have a system problem.

A few weeks ago, I wrote about the Myth of the Super Volunteer, so I won’t go too far down that road here. But the warning still stands: be wary of relying on the same people year after year. Sustainability comes from spreading the workload, documenting knowledge, and building a succession plan for the next generation of leaders.

Evolution Is Not Disrespect

Change often gets framed as criticism of past leadership.

It doesn’t have to be.

Most clubs exist today because people figured things out without resources, templates, or road maps. They fought for field space. Painted lines themselves. Took care of fundraising. Held things together with duct tape and stubbornness. They built culture with nothing but grit, love of the game, and the kind of resilience you only find in Clubland.

But honoring that sacrifice doesn’t mean forcing future generations to struggle the same way.

Just because past leaders struggled doesn’t mean that there’s some grand lesson in making future leaders struggle for the sake of “learning on their own” or some odd right of passage. 

We’re better than that.

If you truly want to leave your club in a better place than you found it, part of that is setting up future leaders for success, not gatekeeping knowledge and calling it tradition.

Progress is a thank you.

Applying Change

If tradition is the soul of the club, then operational systems are scaffolding. Your systems should be reviewed like any part of the game, because rugby and the world around us continues to evolve. 

When it comes to reviewing processes, events, fundraisers, activities, etc. take a long look at the implementation cycle. You may already be familiar with it through your professional career. This is the process for systematically implementing practices, reviewing them, and making adjustments as needed. 

It is a continuous loop that seeks to improve without judgement. That’s our goal right? To make our clubs better? If not, what are we doing?

When you’re evaluating any process, whether it’s brand new or has been around for decades, your first question should be simple: Does this help the club achieve its mission today?

If the answer is yes, keep on rolling, but continue looking for ways to improve it.

If the answer is maybe or no, then you’ve got work to do.

Use the Implementation Cycle

This isn’t complicated. It’s a loop. When you reach the last step, start over at the beginning. 

• Implement
• Trial
• Review
• Adjust
• Repeat
  
  

The point isn’t perfection. The point is not being stuck.

Review, refine, and embrace change when it is indicated. Organizations that embrace this cycle of implement, trial, review, and adjust create strategies that are resilient, responsive, and capable of evolving in changing environments, rather than sticking rigidly to outdated procedures or practices.

Better Questions Build Better Clubs

Here are some great questions to explore when looking at change:

• Does this still serve the club today?
• Is this sustainable if someone steps away?
• Would a brand new volunteer understand this?
• Does this help or hinder growth?
• Are we protecting tradition or protecting inefficiency?
  
  

Clubs that ask better questions build better systems. Don’t make it personal. Foster an environment of curiosity without judgement.

Keep the Soul, Update the Playbook

Grassroots rugby doesn’t need to abandon tradition. It needs to protect it by evolving around it.

The clubs that will thrive in the next decade won’t be the ones clinging hardest to the past. They’ll be the ones who pay respect to where they came from while having the courage to keep moving forward.

Because the most dangerous sentence in club operations isn’t:

“We need to change everything.”

It’s:

“We’ve always done it this way.”