Club and city take stock of GF glory
TOWNSVILLE is giving the Cowboys a whole lot of love in the wake of their first NRL premiership win and the support is set to grow even more.
The city is anticipating a boost in North Queensland Cowboys members and the amount of blue and yellow merchandise on the streets in the wake of their victory.
Cowboys chief executive officer Greg Tonner said now was the time for the supporter base to make it official by getting a club membership.
“This is more than a sport for us, it’s a way we can demonstrate who we are and make people remember us every week,” he said. “We know we’ve got more than 150,000 supporters and we’ve only got 14,000 members.
“Memberships are $ 39, it’s not even a carton of beer and it’s four coffees and cakes.
“The way the country measures a team or club is by its number of members.
“We’ve got more ( supporters) than Hawthorn, we’ve got more than Collingwood, we want people to join.”
Mr Tonner said the premiership win had given the club a greater belief in itself.
“The reason we started the Cowboys … was we wanted to be on a national stage,” he said.
“We did rugby league well and it’s the one thing we play across North Queensland, and we’ve just proven ourselves to the country.”
Townsville residents are already keen to buy a little piece of history in the form of official premiership merchandise.
Manager of Angus Smith Sportspower in Flinders St Ben Smith said fans started expressing interest in premiership memorabilia even before the grand final was played.
“People were putting in orders last week and the week before to secure it just in case the Cowboys won,” he said.
Everything from shirts to ties to commemorative footballs will be in stock across Townsville with the merchandise set to keep flowing in as quickly as suppliers can make it.
Mr Smith said while most locals would snap up their merchandise before the end of the year, many regional people would continue to shop next year if they couldn’t get to the city before then.
“We’ve got a year of being premiers,” he said.