IT’S NO BULL, SOUTHS ARE BACK AGAIN

TOWNSVILLE’S oldest rugby league club will rise from the ashes to reclaim its place in senior football for the first time in two decades.

Souths Bulls will return to A Grade, Reserve Grade and Under-19s rugby league in 2023, more than 20 years after the senior club collapsed in 2000.

Led by former Souths junior Andrew Walters, a bid to revive the 24time A Grade champions has passed its final hurdle and secured entry into next year’s competition.

Walters said he had dreamt of a Bulls comeback since he was a teenager.

Reclaiming the United Suburbs Redbacks junior club, which emerged from the wreckage of 2000, as the Souths Bulls Juniors two years ago was the first step.

That junior base now exceeds 300 players, giving Walters confidence the Bulls are ready to make their long-awaited return to senior football.

“It’s pretty exciting for rugby league in Townsville,” Walters said.

“We haven’t had any growth for a while so to be able to add another team to the competition will be exciting and for our club in general it is really positive. We can’t wait to sink our teeth in.”

Walters, a decorated senior player with Brothers, Norths and University, will step up as the first Souths A Grade head coach in 21 years.

“Being a Bulls junior and then having the team taken away from you when you’re 13, 14 years old, it’s something that I was always passionate about, getting back on to that field,” Walters said.

“This is a club older than the actual league itself with so much history. To bring it back to life gives those people that have been before us a sense of belonging again.”

The Bulls were founded in 1908 as Townsville’s first rugby league club and claimed seven of the region’s first eight premierships between 1917 and 1924.

Souths won its latest A Grade title in 1988, with a culture Walters said was built on toughness and competitiveness.

Instilling those same traits in the Bulls of 2023 will be his key to building a competitive side once again.

The club is racing to sign 66 players for its comeback campaign by January 31, with the bulk of that number to be drawn from its junior system.

The remainder will be recruited from rival clubs, with strict poaching rules ensuring the Bulls cannot draw too deeply from any single club.

RLTD chairman Roger Whyte said those limits had been put in place to protect the sustainability of the league.

“We were very excited about the proposition of a traditional club coming back into the fold,” Whyte said.

“The RLTD board considered a lot of options but we believed that with some safeguards in place Souths’ admission would not only strengthen our competition overall but also enable players to return to their junior club.”

The board has capped Souths at six players per any one club, with additional signings requiring the authority of that club’s president.

The board had also imposed a moratorium on new entrants to the senior competition through 2026.

Walters said the club had already enjoyed positive conversations with former Bulls ready to pull on their old colours again.