Snakes beginning to bite coast powerhouses
Thu 05 November 2009
Daniel Ackland, Bachelor of Journalism
As popularity of rugby league surges on the Sunshine Coast its most southern club, the Caboolture Snakes, continues to forge ahead at unheralded pace.
Although the competition as a whole has received relatively strong growth, Caboolture’s 10 per cent increase in junior numbers this year has seen it become one of the leading clubs on the coast.
While still behind perennial powerhouse Caloundra Sharks by roughly 100 juniors, Caboolture’s breakthrough season has seen player registration numbers jump to an all time high of 250.
This is all despite the fact the club still struggles without the backing of a major club sponsor.
Without the ability to rely on a large grant such as the Caloundra RSL gives to their sponsored clubs, Caboolture has relied upon its registration fees from its 15 junior teams participants.
Caboolture president Darren Dick said it’s a continual struggle for funding, although the increased popularity of league on the Coast has made life easier.
“We have experienced large growth in participation, as kids are becoming ever more exposed to the excitement and entertainment of rugby league,” he said.
Caloundra Sharks Junior’s president, Shaun Cronau echoed Mr Dick’s words by saying he can also see the popularity beginning to build amongst Sunshine Coast kids.
“I think with the NRL (National Rugby League) introducing the Gold Coast Titans plus the Sunshine Coast Sea Eagles winning the Queensland Cup, kids are being saturated with league,” Mr Cronau said.
“However not in a bad way, you are now seeing a lot of kids in the under sevens or eights begin by playing soccer but quickly crossing over to league by the time they are hitting nine or 10.
However Mr Cronau also went on to say the Sunshine Coast Rugby League had to be smart in its administration and learn from past mistakes to make the most of the opportunities that are beginning to present themselves.
“With most of the junior clubs administrative positions being volunteer based work, it leads to a chance that the organisation and financial sections of clubs being open to all sorts of problems,” he said.
“There is a lot of politics involved with the Coast’s junior league; I think they need to be a bit stricter on the operation of each club, which could help the operation of the league in a broader sense quite significantly.
Contributing to the overall popularity increase of rugby league on the Sunshine Coast is the new Queensland Cup outfit, the Sunshine Coast Sea Eagles.
Set-up by NRL club the Manly Sea Eagles, the club went on to win the Queensland Cup in its inaugural season.
Sunshine Coast Sea Eagles president Justin Deivers said he hoped the premiership would be a tremendous boost to an already growing brand.
“I think the premiership will help establish ourselves amongst the community and give us our own place,” he said.
“We are trying to show off our brand as a semi-professional club that also encompasses professional athletes.
The Sunshine Coast Sea Eagles is also a tremendous boost to junior development, as for the first time local talent can see a direct path to the elite NRL competition.
“We have an under 16 and 18 development program which gives kids of the Sunshine Coast a tremendous opportunity to learn and become apart of the Sea Eagles system,” Mr Deivers said.
“This is also what is so attractive for the Manly club, the fact we have such a large junior base which they can now tap into.
This tremendous opportunity however has not been felt in Caboolture, club president Darren Dick said.
“We hardly get a kid looked at by any of the Sunshine Coast rep teams,” he said.
“Our under 14’s went through the season undefeated and did not get one invite to the Sunshine Coast awards night.
Mr Dick felt his juniors were being continually over-looked and this was having an effect on his player retention.
“We now have a lot of kids getting to the age of 17 or 18 who are looking to go and play for Redcliffe, as they see much more opportunities than staying here hoping for the Sea Eagles to come knocking,” Mr Dick said.
However Sea Eagles president Mr Deivers said he hoped for the continual development of all Sunshine Coast clubs including Caboolture.
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