Changes sweep league
SEPTEMBER 12, 2005: As we prepare for the Rugby League Gold Coast decider between Southport and Burleigh, the Bulletin looks at the drama-filled upheaval of season 2005. Trad McLean reports.
THE Tugun rugby league club admit they are “in limbo” and don’t know what to do after a decision by South Tweed to stay in the Northern Rivers Regional Rugby League competition.
And Tweed Seagulls, established in 1909 as the oldest provincial club in Australia, are leaving the NSW Country Rugby League umbrella.
Tugun were hoping to come back from the Brisbanebased Mixwell Cup – where they have played since the Gold Coast Group competition broke up last year – to join a proposed Gold CoastTweed League that would include Burleigh, Runaway Bay, Tweed, Tugun, Southport, Nerang and Beaudesert.
However the South Tweed committee decided to stay in the NRRL, citing inability to generate income through home crowds and uncertainty over the make-up of the new competition. Burleigh, Tweed and Runaway Bay all flagged their intention to play in the 2006 Mixwell Cup, although the QRL Southern Division are against it. The move leaves Tugun in a bind.
They don’t want to play in the Mixwell Cup but are a much stronger outfit than the teams in the local Gold Coast competition. Playing in the NRRL would suit them but the QRL is dead-set against them crossing the border.
“Everyone needs to get their head out of their bums and start thinking about league on the Gold Coast,” Tugun president Dean Glover said. “QRL head Ross Livermore has to get down here … we are just in limbo.”
QRL Southern Division want to force Bay, Burleigh and Tweed out of the Mixwell Cup and back into the local competition.
An email obtained by the Bulletin from new Gold Coast league administrator Jeff Orman said no Coast clubs would be permitted in the Mixwell competition.
But all three are adamant they have advice they can play in the Brisbane league.
State league entity Tweed are moving as terms of their agreement – signed last week – to be a feeder club of the new NRL franchise on the Gold Coast.
“The reason is we are a feeder club for the NRL and part of that is to provide the strongest competition for our players, as Burleigh do,” said Tweed president Tom Searle.