The Narrabeen Sharks welcomes veteran Shane Bullock as the club’s new President, taking over the stellar job performed by lifetime member Tim Stuart.
Having first played for the Sharks in 1981, and being involved ever since, Shane knows a thing or two about what it means to be a Shark. We sat down with Shane to get some insight into what this means to him past, present and future.
What does being a Sharkie mean to you?
Having spent over 40 years with this club in various roles, it’s an absolute honour to be elected as the 2023 President.
Throughout this time I have so many awesome memories and have met so many different people with some of them becoming life long friends. As a child growing up rugby league was everything to me, and all I ever wanted to do was to play professional football. Narrabeen and some amazing coaches gave me that opportunity.
Narrabeen has always been the club that was looked upon as the hardest team to play against and to my mind it was the pure grit and toughness of the Sharkies players and the will to never let your mates down that made them so hard to play. I look back now and feel proud that I was part of that.
What’s your favourite Sharkies’ memory?
I have two distinct favourite memories. The first was winning my first ever premiership with the Sharks. This came 26 years after I started playing football, what made it so special was I did it with some great mates next to me, in particular, Tony Balkin. We spoke about the moment so many years earlier, how good would it be to win an A grade Grand Final and it came in 2007 with a Narrabeen side that was so stacked with local talent up against a side that was stacked with ex NRL players. It was the Narrabeen spirit that won us that game and is something I will never forget.
The next memory is probably my favourite, watching my son experience what I did so many years ago. His team won the A grade premiership last year in a nail biting finish which came down to the last few seconds. That was a pretty emotional day.
What’s your vision for the club?
When I look back on my career with the Sharks the memories that stand out all centre around what an unbelievable tight football club Narrabeen was.
The senior players were idolised by the juniors and this was because the A graders had so much involvement with the juniors in coaching and managing roles. One of my main focusses this year is to get this family football club back.
I’d like to see the A grade team more involved with the junior by way of mentoring at training sessions and games. I feel by doing this, it will have a positive effect on the development of junior players and in turn will entice the juniors to want to get down to Lake Park on a Sunday arvo and watch their mentor play. I’d also like to focus on ensuring that not only do the kids have the most enjoyable experience they can this year but the parents too. It is a huge commitment to give up your Saturday but if the kids have massive smiles on their faces then the parents will too.