Steve Sweeney was again President as well as Third Grade coach in 1978 & all three senior grades were entered in the Illawarra competition with First Grade coached by Neil Lord and Seconds by Dennis Guild, all wearing black shorts.

This year turned out to be the Club’s most successful by far with all three grades reaching the semi finals and Seconds going through to the final. The Seconds ability was clear as shown by their “for & against” point’s tally of 451-99. Leading try & points scorer was John Horton with 64 (all tries).

All the Club’s members were absolutely determined on establishing their own ground and the previous year had formed a Grounds Committee consisting of John Ryan (Chairman), Steve Sweeney (SRFC President), John Miller (SRFC Treasurer), Ralph Cook, Greg Horton & Bill Ellison who designed the facility.
More later on the desire the Club had to get off its backside and establish a facility that would be admired (& then and now envied) in the Shoalhaven & beyond. Many and varied fund raising events such as building demolition, land slashing & house cleaning were undertaken as well as the aforementioned raffles, hay carting and wine bottling in order to finance the dream.
The largest, most time consuming and enjoyable fund raiser was the presentation to the public of the Club’s first ever stage production- a Revue entitled “I’m Just a Scrum & Pants Man” held at a packed School of Arts over two nights. Produced by Geraldine Miller, it was a huge success and provided much needed finance.
The Club finished 1978 with $9000+ in accumulated funds. Interesting to note that non playing member’s subscriptions almost equalled that of players. Due to the tireless efforts of the Grounds Committee and the “labour of love” by many Club members & supporters, notably Kerry Lynch and crew, initial work begun at South Nowra at the 25 acre parcel of land allocated to the Club by Council, although at this point there wasn’t even a road into the site, merely tracks through the bush. Even Flinders road was still to be fully developed.

Shoalhaven in 1979 again fielded three senior grades with the coaches being Dennis Guild (1sts) Ian Larsen (2nds) and Steve Sweeney (3rds). Unfortunately, due to illness, Steve Sweeney had to relinquish the coaching position but continued for his third term as President and Neil Lord took over as coach. Once again due to long & intermittent absence of key players it was difficult to consistently field the same team each week. Players of the calibre of Bruce Bishop, James Holmes, Keith Jones, John Campbell, Dave Eddington and Gary Osmond were all unavailable at some stage.
Sorely missed when on a number of representative duties, Peter Gell & Steve Curran were members of the Illawarra side that won the Wills Trophy. Firsts narrowly missed out on the final four but Seconds made the semis only to be beaten in the final. The Third Grade side was basically a young group although that could hardly be said of their unflagging, black short wearing captain (& later coach) Neil Lord, the indestructible ten year veteran Ian Perkins or the altruistic manager Doug Bice who was awarded Clubman of the Year.
The SRFC Player of the Year went to Keith Jones as did The Best & Fairest Forward award in First Grade. However back then it was considered that “Best & Fairest” for a forward was an oxymoron. Many of the younger players including Hugh Lamond, Bernie Gleeson, Cameron Urquhart, Bob Hansen & Kevin Lord would later play first grade. That year a junior side, U18, was fielded for the first time, playing on Sundays and included a numbers of Third Graders like Phil Lee & Mark King. Bomaderry High also entered a team in the state wide Buchan Shield and was beaten only by Randwick High in the final. The Club was still playing at Lyrebird Park and now had gained a reasonable following coupled with the growing number of players so SRFC’s two resident Kiwi builders Neil Lord & Doug Bice obtained a trailer and constructed a resplendent & functional mobile canteen with counter, roof etc which would be towed to the Bices’ home after games, Doug spent many a Sunday morning cleaning, washing & polishing, scrubbing utensils etc. Or was that Linda? Inside was a bath that was filled with ice to make a bar fridge. However project funds must have been limited as several floor boards were missing but nobody was lost to the abyss.
It was becoming increasingly obvious that the ladies in the Club were becoming integral part of the Club’s success and although no formal structure existed, functions were planned, meals organised and the support given during the continuing construction of the grounds was invaluable.

Other firsts in 1979 were the inaugural Winter Ball and the publication of a glossy page Year Book containing all manner of Club information, photos and statistics including a list of registered players (88) who played during the year.
There were also separate reports of the Rugby Union Cricket Club and Rugby Water Polo team, the latter again winning the competition that year.

Over the preceding few years Col Bishop, owner of Coolangatta Historic Village and whose two sons Bruce & Greg played for Shoalhaven RFC, generously welcomed the players & friends to his establishment and the venue became an unofficial clubhouse.
The Club Social Committee under Doug Bice also raised much needed funds for the ground development and by the years end Stage 1 of the rugby/cricket ground was cleared with cut & fill almost completed.

Foster Emery became Club President in 1980 and SRFC again contested all three senior grades & also added U16s to the U18s. Neil Lord (of missing floor boards & more importantly, black shorts fame) was First Grade coach, Dennis Guild guided Seconds and Shoalhaven’s Junior Committee Jack Allen Third Grade. First Grade prop Phil Olsen was back at the Club after returning earlier to NZ for family reasons.
Together with another Kiwi, team captain Keith Jones and Greg Horton the front row emerged as one of the most respected in Illawarra. Two other members of the pack, Dick Habel & John Campbell represented Illawarra and the club fielded its strongest pack in years. Phil Emery was tireless at half and Nic Sverdloff had a great season on the wing. However both Firsts & Seconds finished out of the final four-breed ‘em tough in those days, no final 5-but Thirds reached the final but progressed no further. Seven Juniors were selected for Illawarra and Cameron Urquhart & Mark Kenny were also chosen for NSW Country U18s with Kenny being the first Shoalhaven player, Senior or Junior, to be selected for a NSW team, being NSW U18s.

By seasons end instant lawn had been laid on the portion of the Stage 1 development and the remainder of the field was ready for planting. An irrigation system was installed and electricity was not long off being connected. The site for the clubrooms had been cleared. The RUCC had installed two practice wickets at the ground with one being covered with astro turf. It was hoped that playing wickets would be installed over the summer period for use in the 1981/82 season. The grounds had already been the venue for various social activities including a bbq for the visiting Paeroa team as well as sometimes involuntary “sleep overs”. Council indicated that they would provide the Club a grant of $24,000 to assist with the construction of the clubhouse and toilets. A proviso was that the Club had to provide a similar amount from the Club’s own resources. Keep raffling those chooks fellas!!