Contest built on pure grit

“ALL the teams played to the death.”

If you want to know how much the Foley Shield meant to the north Queensland rugby league community, just ask Lionel Williamson.

The winger represented Innisfail in a decorated career that included 112 games for Newtown in the NSWRL alongside Queensland and Australian selection but the battles for the coveted trophy rank as the toughest he experienced and the crowds simply loved it.

“It was huge,” Williamson said. “In those days you played for your town and out of the Foley Shield they picked the North Queensland team.

“When you played, the whole town turned out. We’d play at Callendar Park and the whole ground would be packed.

“There was no quarter given and that’s why people loved it.

“There were no easy games. When you’re playing for your town, it’s on for young and old.”

He can’t make it to the grandstand tonight but said he hoped the matches at Barlow Park between the Pride and Blackhawks invoked some of the spirit he recalled from his time on the park in the 1960s and 1970s.

“It’s Townsville versus Cairns so it will give people an insight into the parochial side of it,” he said.

“Whether that flows through from the game, I really hope it does.”

The original Foley Shield ran from 1948 until 1995 before it was first rebranded in 2000.

Babinda won the inaugural shield, while Cairns won the first of its 14 titles in 1953.

While the silverware has mostly been the domain of senior football, unlike previous years the under-18 and under-20s results are also included in the overall results of the revamped competition.