BUSY BURKE KICKING BIG GOALS
A TALL teenager from the remote indigenous community of Hope Vale has been invited to take his AFL dreams further at an exclusive training combine for some of the nation’s most promising prospects.
Damien Burke will join 22 other invitees at the league’s inaugural “Rookie Me” combine in October.
Two AFL clubs placed nominations on the emerging key position talent who kicked bags of five and six goals for the Gold Coast Suns Academy earlier this year.
Burke boarded last year at AFL Cape York House in Cairns while completing Year 12 at Trinity Bay State High School. He is now studying sports management at Bond University on the Gold Coast.
Cricket Club will be a force for years to come once a long-term vision finally comes to fruition later this year.
Construction has started on a state-of-the-art $525,000 covered nets facility at the Toads’ new digs at Walker Road, Edmonton, which would most importantly allow the club to operate as normal in a rain-marred summer of cricket.
The structure is set to be completed by November, although the fitout of lights and synthetic turf may not be ready by the time the Sheffield Shield rolls into town in December.
Mulgrave ex-president Lance Rodman, who has played a massive part in the vision for the project, said the club’s success in future would come down to more than just facilities but felt it could play a part.
“It’s all about the long-term plan. With the new field this year we thought if we’re going to put a set of nets in, we may as well put in as good as we can,” he said.
“You try to get everything in the background and the players can go out there and do what they have to do on the field.”
Queensland Treasurer and Member for Mulgrave Curtis Pitt said it would be a huge boost for his former junior club and could provide alternate training options for visiting national or international teams.
“To my understanding, these are going to be the only facilities of their kind north of Brisbane, which really positions Far North Queensland very well not only in grassroots cricket and development, but also for sports tourism,” he said.
“We hope if we can hold some international-class matches here in Cairns, that this will be an opportunity for the visiting team to come and use this facility, particularly in cases of wet weather.
“It really is just a testament to the strength of not only Mulgrave cricket but cricket more broadly in Far North Queensland. We’ve been able to produce many fantastic cricketers from this region and given the amount of rain we get … people wonder how we do it, but clearly it really is that next stage to allow continued growth.”
THESE ARE GOING TO BE THE ONLY FACILITIES OF THEIR KIND NORTH OF BRISBANE STATE TREASURER CURTIS PITT