Royals Admin 21/03/2025

The Canberra Royals Rugby community were deeply saddened to learn of the passing last Tuesday evening of one of our finest ever players and a premiership winning 1st grade coach, Graham Reed (‘‘Reedy’’). ‘Reedy’ had been battling cancer for a couple of years and finally lost his battle due to complications associated with the cancer.  The Reed family, parents Ted and Marie, brother Peter and sister Janine moved to Canberra from Nowra in January 1973. Ted was in the Navy and both he and Marie were great supporters of Royals and his brother, Peter was a regular player before himself...

Matt Cleary 15/09/2024

MICHAEL Roche was known as ‘Cocka’ as a nod to Al Pacino’s character, Tony Montana, from the movie Scarface (1981). A better nickname was draped over his younger brother, Tim, who was known as ‘Cockatoo’.“Cocka was a wonderful backrower. Tough, smart, ‘everywhere’; he was a quiet achiever, the glue sides need at the breakdown,” Geoff Didier says.“He could be very aggressive in his moments. But as a captain, generally speaking, he was a school prefect. He was great for Royals and had a big influence. It can’t be underestimated.”John Kelsey says Roche had “great presence on the field and was...