The CQ NRL Team and the CQ Under 20 Toyota Cup Team will be made up of at least 75% local CQ players. This commitment has already been made by the CQ NRL Bid organisation and conforms perfectly to one of the primary objectives, “To provide clearly recognisable career paths for aspiring Rugby League players from Central Queensland”.

We have made this commitment to the local CQ players absolutely clear many times and still some of our critics just don’t understand our firm resolve or they just don’t understand the fact that CQ is RUGBY LEAGUE HEARTLAND and as such the most prolific producer of Rugby League players in the world.

To prove a point, the following is a Queensland State of Origin team, recently chosen by a CQ Rugby League expert (not me, by the way).

Rod Reddy, Mal Meninga, Greg Conescu, Alan McIndoe, Garry Larson, Matt Sing, Julian O’Neil, Paul Bowman, Jason Hetherington, Antonio Kaufusi, Matt Scott, Rhys Wesser, PJ Marsh, John Doyle, Steve Bell, Dave Taylor, Josh Hannay, Clinton Schifcofske.

I rate this side very highly, but it does not include some exceptional Rugby League players from our region including: Brett Dallas, Chris Close, Wendell Sailor, Martin Bella, Neville Costigan, Travis Norton, Kevin Campion, Shannon Hegarty, Owen Cunningham, Les Kiss, all of whom played State of Origin – the highest standard of Rugby League in the world.

Most of these players have retired but some others from our region are currently NRL or emerging NRL players e.g. Josh Hoffman, Tom Humble, Ben Hunt, Pat O’Hanlon, Nick Kenny, Ben Barba, Andrew McCullough and many more.

I recently attended the U15 Queensland Schoolboys Championships in Bundaberg and in between games I browsed the program. The names of some of the well know players who have participated in these championships in previous years are truly amazing.

This article is not big enough to list them all, so I will just mention a selected few from our regions, in no particular order. I have excluded previously mentioned players: Peter Jackson, Tony Rea, Steve Renouf, Dale Fritz, Brett Plowman, Sid Domic, John Driscol, Darren Mapp, Brett Seymour, Matt Ballin, Willie Tonga, Nick Emmitt, Kris Kahler, Nick Parfitt, and so on.

As a result of the U15 State Titles, as mentioned above, three Central Queenslanders were selected in the AUSTRALIAN U15 merit team and a few others could consider themselves very unlucky to miss out. The CQ players who are now “Australian Representatives” are Harry Pondekas from The Cathedral College Rockhampton, Duncan Paia’aua from Emmaus College Rockhampton, and Joshua Birch from Bundaberg North State High School.

So much then for those critics who say that there isn’t the talent base in CQ to sustain our own NRL team. Every year Central Queensland produces outstanding Rugby League players. Many of these players will play for the CQ NRL Team and represent Central Queensland with pride and distinction.

Support your own NRL team in CQ – join as a Bid and CQ Leagues Club member (it’s all free) and if you are in business, join as a Corporate Partner.

From the desk of Denis Keeffe – CEO, CQ NRL Bid Team