CYCLONES STALL OVER WOMEN
WHILE the concept is tantalising in theory, the Townsville Cyclones will not be looking at getting a women’s gridiron team up and running this year.
Their primary focus will be building their junior base.
Cyclones running back Kyle Reynolds said the club’s junior ranks fell over last season, while they also suffered a leadership vacuum as key players retired.
The inclusion of a second Townsville team – the Chargers – in the North Queensland Gridiron Championship has also come with the hope of an all-women side kickstarting a female competition.
But Reynolds, having previously tried to get a women’s team off the ground, pointed to other football codes that had suffered a dearth in numbers as evidence they simply did not have the resources to support it at this stage.
For the All Stars representative, it was a case of building their juniors to be a sustainable, competitive club throughout the age groups before plans for a women’s side could come to the fore.
“That’s always been the plan, when we have the resources to spare we can get a women’s team up and do it properly … That’s when a women’s competition will grow,” Reynolds said.
“But at the moment, the club has to think about our club and what’s going to make it better.
“The coaching and level of support there is for juniors in
Gridiron Australia. We get the Australia coaches here and run clinics. Kids see this is an actual program, we get those players for the next five years.
“In Reef Bowl five against Cairns, one of our juniors from back in 2015 made an interception that won us the game. That’s one of our juniors we developed.
“It’s better bang for your buck to go into your juniors, and spend our money to get a junior competition going.”
However, having a second Townsville team in the North Queensland championships has Reynolds revved up.
Far from being concerned his Cyclones will lose numbers, to him it shows the growth of the game in the region and spices up the competition. And he has fired the first barb ahead of the forthcoming season.
“Team loyalty is pretty big within the Cyclones, a lot of dudes don’t want to wear a different colour,” he said.
“We’ll lose one or two but mostly the Chargers will be made up of people that hate me. It’s going to be so much fun when our players score TDS at will.
“Expansion for the sake of it isn’t the greatest thing, so we didn’t want to split the Cyclones into two teams for an interclub rivalry.
“Now that it’s inter-town, it’s great for the sport.”