ISAAC Regional Council is getting behind Central Queensland’s push to join the NRL competition, encouraging its residents and ratepayers to sign a petition.

The petition for a CQ-based NRL team is going on public display at all of Council’s offices – in Clermont, Dysart, Glenden, Middlemount, Nebo and St Lawrence, as well as Council’s administrative headquarters at Batchelor Parade, Moranbah.

“Having this petition available for signing at our offices is the very least we can do, especially considering how important rugby league is to our local communities and what an NRL team could do for Central Queensland,” said Isaac Regional Council mayor Cedric Marshall, a resident of Dysart – the former hometown of Queensland Origin hero Matt Sing.

The CQ NRL Bid Team has welcomed Council’s willingness to embrace the petition, initiated by The Morning Bulletin in Rockhampton. It has since been published by other Central Queensland newspapers under the APN News Media banner.

“Rugby league is part of the social fabric in those communities that make up the Isaac Region. From Moranbah to Middlemount and Clermont to Carmila, they love their rugby league,” said project co-ordinator, Jason Costigan, who will be in Moranbah next Monday to see Cr Marshall add his name to the petition.

“On behalf of the bid team, I sincerely thank Cr Marshall for his support and trust people in the various towns make a point of signing the petition. We’re dead serious about this project but we need the people of Isaac to get involved. That way, we can prove to the NRL that we’re fair dinkum and that we can sustain our very own NRL team.”

The Isaac Region’s best known league exports include Sing and Moranbah’s homegrown former Origin players – Josh Hannay, Travis Norton and Clinton Schifcofske.