North Sydney leaders back the Voice | Funding for Miller St Plaza | Best Happy Hours
August 2023 Issue 25
News and views for North Sydney’s residential and business communities
www.northsydneysun.com.au
Minor premiers: Norths teams top the comps across winter codes By James Mullan The Northern Suburbs Shoremen have finished on top of the rugby union Shute Shield regular competition for the second year in a row, continuing one of their best purple patches in their 100 year participation in the competition. And it’s not only the Shoremen who have topped their comp locally. The North Shore Bombers men have topped the Sydney AFL regular season, while the Norths’ NBL1 women’s squad is into the grand final this weekend against Manly-Warringah. The North Sydney Bears are also looking strong, five points clear of the next team at the top of the NSW Cup second tier competition. If they can account for the Roosters, next week they are also guaranteed a minor premiership. For the Shoremen, finishing top of the comp was far from certain at the midpoint of the season when they had won just four of their first seven games. Yet they came storming home to top the comp when they won nine of their next nine games. Captain Harry Burey told the Sun they had learned from those losses and re-focussed. “Shute Shield is a very tight competition. Those kinds of games you can turn slightly off, even the worst
Zak Beer
Harry Burey
teams in the comp can pull your pants down. At times, we were trying a little too hard and putting too much pressure on ourselves but it’s been a bit more of a relaxed environment for the last few months,” he said. The Shute Shield competition is a semi-professional league, with the majority of players working as well as playing. Burey believes Norths’ ability to keep the majority of the roster consistent over the last few seasons has helped lead to success. “90% of our players work full time and the other 10% are working part time or studying. Hats off to the boys' effort they put in over a long preseason and 18 rounds to consistently keep turning up to training and work
hard when some players have been on the tools all day or they’ve done a 10 hour day in the office,” he said. Looking forward to the finals, Burey is not getting complacent. “The six teams in the finals now could all beat each other. Those finals games come down to those small incremental moments. It’s about making sure we are at our best and focussed for Saturday,” he said. First up in the finals they will host the Hunter Wildfires, whom they previously beat in the regular season round. In even better news, if they progress through every semi final will be hosted at North Sydney Oval. A key part of the Shoremen’s success has been their coach Zak Beer,
who has taken the side to the finals in every season he has been at the club. Captain Burey says his coach has brought much needed consistency. “We seemed like we were getting a new coach every year and starting from scratch but having Zak Beer over the last four years has helped with that consistency factor. He’s still such a young coach and aspirational, gives us a lot of energy to the role and is very detail oriented,” Burey said. As for the style of footy they are playing, Beer is innovative. “He watches a lot of footy and brings in elements of a few different styles or rugby, be it European, UK or even Japanese rugby, he seems to pick up details from around the world.” Burey added. Godfrey Santer Beer recently extended his contract with Norths through 2024. "The success of the club is due to all of the great people we have involved here at Norths. This is a special place, we have an exciting group of talented players right throughout and I'm fortunate to work closely together with some of the competition's brightest and hard-working coaches coming through our club,” Beer said. "Cohesion and stability are foundations of any successful organisation Continued Page 6
Stage 1 of West St cycleway comes to life, bridging North Sydney, Cammeray By James Mullan Stage 1 of the West Street cycleway has officially opened, kickstarting a new connected route between Cammeray and North Sydney. The 100m track runs between Ridge St and the Pacific Highway, along the back of the Union Hotel and North Sydney Police Station. The project came to life after being identified as a key location in 2014. According to cycling group Bike North head Carolyn New it is the first North to South cycleway that has been built in the LGA for 15 years. Construction was made possible by shared funding from North Sydney Council and the NSW Government. NSW Transport Minister Jo Haylen said: “the project will make it easier for people to walk and cycle, giving everyone the option to leave the car at
home and enjoy the fresh air as they wander through this beautiful part of Sydney. I’m pleased the NSW Government has been able to contribute $800k to get this project completed.” NS Council is contributing $50,000. At the opening of the lane, North Sydney Mayor Zoe Baker said “Council is pleased to finally have finished this section of the West St Cycleway which will ensure cyclists of all ages and abilities are kept safe on their journeys to and from work, school or other activities. The completion of Stage 1 marks the beginning of Council addressing the ‘missing link’ to connect North Sydney with Willoughby and beyond.” Baker added that cyclists collectively make more than 400 trips along West Street each weekday, believing the new cycleway will only help to increase that number.
Bike North’s New told the Sun that this project has been decades in the making, delivering an upgrade from the existing shoulder lanes, which are more dangerous. New said West St used to be more quiet from a traffic perspective due to factors like an increase in school number so “It’s got to be separated now. It would’ve been fine with the levels of traffic we had decades ago, but not now.” She explained West St is an important cycling route as it runs parallel to the much busier Miller St and Pacific Highway plus is an intersection of several preexisting bike routes. This includes Ridge St which connects to Neutral Bay and Mosman to the east, then Waverton and Woll-
stonecraft to the west, as well as north up to Cammeray onto the M1 cycleway. The next stage of the West Street cycleway is currently in the works and will be considerably longer than stage 1. It aims to connect North Sydney and Cammeray, between Ridge and Amhurst Street.