“It’s a pretty good effort for a small club like ours to be the first club that are still going in such a strong competition,” club president Greg Smith said. 

“We haven’t always been in the Canberra Raiders Cup … due to numbers or competitive[ness] or not having the money others do, but to be the first club to reach that milestone is due to the commitment of local players and committees and volunteers involved.” 

This season will combine elements of the old with elements of the new. Smith confirmed that the Magpies will hold an official celebration day on July 27, during their home game against the Goulburn Bulldogs. 

The decision to celebrate the club’s immense history during its match against the Bulldogs, Smith said, was in recognition of Goulburn’s history as one of Yass’s oldest opponents. 

This home fixture will see each Magpies side on the day take to the field in different jerseys from throughout the team’s history.

Meanwhile, the club has also announced a new logo for 2019, one which celebrates the milestone by returning to an original design with some modern elements. 

As the club prepares to celebrate and commemorate the first hundred years of its history, Smith said that it might take a little while for the magnitude of the occasion to fully sink in. 

“It probably hasn’t hit home just yet, because we start[ed] back to training [on Tuesday night],” Smith said. 

“It probably won’t hit us ‘til the season starts … as you get to the cooler months and the comp starts, it’ll hit home then.”

The Magpies’ incoming coach, Cam Hardy, also expressed his excitement about the season to Smith, who said that it was in part due to Hardy’s long-running association with the Yass club. 

“Cam’s always coached at pretty high levels and he’s always followed Yass over the years,” Smith said. 

“He’s always had that soft spot for Yass given the country culture [we] have and how everyone bonds together after games down at the club, which you don’t often see at the bigger clubs in Canberra or Queanbeyan.”