GETTING BACK IN THE GAME Sports take hard knocks and carry on
TOWNSVILLE’S sports community is picking up the pieces after the region’s once-in-500 year flooding event left many surfaces unplayable and facilities heavily damaged.
Club members and supporters have been volunteering countless hours in the clean-up, which has been picking up pace since skies cleared over the weekend.
North Queensland Football has postponed its season start to March 20, with the season originally due to start later this month, while the Townsville and Districts Rugby Union will make a decision on its 2019 season kick-off later this week.
The Townsville and Districts Rugby League is confident of playing an unaffected season from its original start date of March 1, with the region’s clubs meeting with the TDRL tonight.
Townsville AFL, which has seen the Hermit Park Tigers and Curra Swans suffer extensive damage, hopes to launch its season with its scheduled pre-season blitz tournament on March 16, followed by Round 1 on March 23.
Townsville Hockey, which saw its two artificial turf fields at Murray Sports Complex completely destroyed by the flooding, is holding working bees from tomorrow as the club takes stock of its estimated $2 million in structural damage.
Townsville Turf Club, which had 1255mm of rainfall on the course over seven days, is aiming for a return to racing on February 21, with demount- able buildings and a marquee planned to ensure the meeting can proceed.
NQ Football, which had water rise to 900mm over its Brolga Park fields, saw its facilities emerge from the flooding in relatively good order.
“Murray took a lot of water, but the fields will come back fine,” NQ Football president Declan Carnes said.
“Only the referee rooms were badly damaged ... we have got on to the assessors and we’ll see what happens.
“But most of the facilities are usable.”
Carnes said the association would use the six weeks until season kick-off to promote football in local schools.
“We have our 2019 Free Football Schools Program that we will be rolling out,” he said.
“We just have to rearrange everything and move forward.”
Townsville AFL chairman Maurie Soars is confident the local AFL season will go ahead with minimal disruption.
“The insurer and AFL Queensland have been coming to the party and have been flexible in supporting us,” Soars said.
“We may look at pushing back the season by two or three weeks; it will only be that scope, provided more rain.
“We want to keep kick-off to as close to the original start as possible, but we will be guided by our facility managers and we’re putting contingency plans in place.”
Townsville Cricket will look to resume matches this weekend, with several grounds including The Green at Burdell and Endeavour Park at Murray inundated.
Five more matches remain in the A grade cricket season before finals.
Townsville and Districts Rugby League chairman Ross Anderson said the local senior season would kick off on its original March 1 starting date.
“We’re finalising the draw tomorrow and the clubs will be getting together with us to provide updates,” he said. “Everybody will be phoning in.”
The senior league calendar will include the City versus Country clash at Jack Manski Oval on March 28.
Townsville Table Tennis will host the Queensland Closed Championships starting on Thursday after having power restored on Saturday.
“It has been chaotic but we’re slowly getting things together,” Townsville Table Tennis president Brendan Gaeta said.
“Ergon and the council worked around the clock to get us up back and running, so it looks like it’s full steam ahead.
“We have chairs covered in mould and other bits of damage – so there’s still work to do – but we’re ready to go for Thursday.” there is no
“WE MAY LOOK AT PUSHING BACK THE SEASON BY TWO OR THREE WEEKS; IT WILL ONLY BE THAT SCOPE, PROVIDED THERE NO MORE RAIN MAURIE SOARS IS
DON’T MISS THE NRL LAUNCH OF THE YEAR
Book now at