The hard work and rapid growth of the Coomera Cutters Junior Rugby League Club has recognised, with it being named 'Best Club' by Inside Sport in their annual Clubbie Awards.
There were more than 1100 nominations nationwide for the annual contest and the Cutters were deemed top of the pack for 2018.
Now in just their sixth season, the Cutters have grown to become the second biggest junior rugby league club on the Gold Coast and their work with the local community has been outstanding.
More >> What are the Clubbies?
Fiona Evans is the club's secretary and she has been at the club since day one along with her husband Glenn, who is the president.
Evans said old fashioned hard work by a dedicated team of people had allowed them to grow and prosper at such a rate.
"We're all pretty excited actually," she said of the Clubbie win. "(In) our first year, it was pop up tents and a couple of porta toilets. That was it.
"We've worked really, really hard since then and we opened up our new building last year. This season is the first full season we've been in our new clubhouse.
"We've gone from nothing, to really quite big really quickly. For our committee that has been here since the beginning, to win this is a bit of recognition that we have been doing a good job."
Numbers have swelled from just over 100 players in their first season, to more than 40 teams across all junior age groups.
The Coomera area is a diverse community and that is reflected in the club's playing ranks.
Diversity is celebrated by the club with special events such as their Whanau Ora (Family) Day and a commitment to low registration fees has also had a positive impact on keeping young people positively engaged in the community on the football field.
While they are proud of their achievements so far, they have no intention of resting on their laurels and have their minds set on further growth and expansion in the years to come.
As the club grows, so do the players that started with it. Young players who joined the club as Under 9s are making their way into the Under 15s, for example, and in the years ahead they are hoping those kids stay on to play open senior football at the Cutters.
"We've got massive numbers in the younger age groups, but in the next five years I'd like to see us get really strong in all age groups," Evans said.
"We want to keep all these young kids we've got now and I'd like to think that we have enough kids coming through that we can be playing high levels of open age football in the future and also women's football.
"We've had a couple of attempts at girls football. We're fielding an Under 14s girls team and we've got a few in the Under 12s team as well, but in future we'd like to have a girls team in every age as well."
A grand prize of $5000 worth of Intersport vouchers is heading their way to help ensure the club continues to grow and be a leading example of what junior rugby league on the Gold Coast aspires to be.
* Photo: Coomera Cutters Facebook page
