With costs to commute players rising and senior and junior squads traversing 100s of kilometres regularly en route to Melbourne to compete, the Bulls have done the hard yards off the pitch as well as on it.
Mind you, it’s all worth it for the players when they don the club jumper, but with every second week spent on the road to compete against their metropolitan opposition, any assistance can be valuable.
Fortunately, a significant improvement in the team's travel arrangements is on the horizon.
A newly donated 22-seater bus from FamilyCare will streamline Shepparton's game day logistics, significantly enhancing the team's travel efficiency.
“To get our players to games on the weekend, it’s logistically hard because they’ve got to play in Melbourne,” Bulls’ board member and former FamilyCare employee Carly Ssali said.
“We’ve just been hiring vans and things like that, which is a big cost to the club.
“At work, we had a bus that was being used for NDIS participants, but they needed to change their mode of transport.
“They had announced that they were going to be off-boarding the bus, so I had an idea that I would send them a letter and ask whether they would be interested in donating it to help our players.”
The local family, carer, and disability support services provider gladly supported the initiative, officially transferring ownership of the bus to the Shepparton Rugby Union Club.
With two senior squads, a growing junior program, and some elite representative talent constituting the Bulls family, the donation will go a long way.
The club, understandably, was grateful.
“The board had a discussion about it with the CEO at the time, David (Tennant),” Ssali said.
“They thought it was a great idea and did all their due diligence and all that risk assessment, and then they've donated the bus.
“The thing we'd want is just to acknowledge that it's a significant gift, it makes a massive difference for our players.”
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