Tiger Sharks want to light up Rugby Park

The light on their ability to become a force in WA rugby union was turned on last weekend when the Geraldton Tiger Sharks won their first match in the third division of Perth Community grade. Their 18-14 downing of Associates was even sweeter considering they had been given a 26-0 walloping by Perth Irish (Green) in their introduction to the competition a week earlier. The Tiger Sharks are coached by the affable and athletic Feao Ofa, simply known as Eric. Tomorrow, in their first home appearance in the “bigger boys league”, the gentle giant of a leader is planning on his boys lighting up Rugby Park, Spalding. His eventual plan, and that of the developing club, is to have their home base lit up permanently. “One of our main goals is to get the City (of Greater Geraldton) to install lights here. And we want to get changerooms, rooms for his and her,” Ofa said. “We want to have a proper complex, somewhere we can call home. Somewhere where kids can come and train and play, stay and be happy.” He knows the better they perform on the park, and the more luring the sport becomes to locals, the better the chance there is of that happening. Ofa said the Sharks “came up a bit short” in their first year playing in Perth, but “we learnt much”. “We’re playing every week this year and that will be better. We’ve got a bus and it’s being done up, it will be good to travel to games together. “We’re looking at some shiny silverware (eventually), but it’s one step at a time. We’re training hard, the boys have had their heads down. “We work on training off the field as well. I want their lives to be settled, for things to be good in their home lives. “It eases the load and makes things better on the field when all’s well away from it.” With teams stretching north to Geraldton and south to Bunbury, Perth-based Rugby WA believes it has the most diverse “metropolitan” competition in the world. The Sharks come up against Perth Bayswater, one of the biggest premier clubs in WA, at 4pm tomorrow.