Stanley River: 'Tears aren't going to put this place back together... hard work is'

New football gear sopping, everything in the equipment shed water-logged and muddy, the canteen with its new fixtures covered in oil from the deep fryer and muddy.

The mess... unimaginable. The silver lining... the people. 

The devastation the heavy rainfall and flooding has caused at Stanley River Rugby League Football Club is next level, but first-year president Mary-Anne Hallam is confident the club will be okay, thanks to the support of the rugby league community.

The club's new merchandise, uniforms and scoreboards have been salvaged, courtesy of being stored on the second level of the clubhouse, but everything else is gone. This is a "silver lining" for Hallam, who said the gravity of the situation had still not sunk in.

"We've lost nearly everything," Hallam, who has had a long association with the club, said.

"All of our first aid equipment, all of our seniors training equipment that was in the shed... their tackle pads, hit pads, water bottles, training balls, match balls, were all submerged. 

"We had a deep freezer down there that we kept all of our ice and stuff in… that was all rolled over and upended and submerged.

"The water in the canteen was up to the roof. Everything is there is gone.. all of the equipment, all of the fridges and freezers. The shutters, rangehood and cabinetry were all new.

"This is huge. We're starting the season now with basically no training equipment at all. Where we should be having teams coming down for their first lots of training, but we've had to cancel it all and now they just have balls and markers to train with until we can replace it. We now have no post pads for our goal posts. We've got nothing."

Hallam said she was focused on sorting out the insurance as quickly as possible and hoped there wouldn't be a supply and demand issue when it came to equipment.

"But I don't know how long it's going to take to get our canteen back up and running,” Hallam said.

"It's going to need all the power points replaced, a new power box, all the cookers replaced. Deep fryer was sitting there full of oil, which has washed out and there's oil everywhere through brand new cabinetry that we had put in through grant funding we got. It's gone... it's all swollen. It's going to need pulling out, the internal wall in there is going to need ripping out. Everything."

Hallam said the club took five trailer loads to the dump on day one of the clean up, and on day two, there were just as many. 

She said she was humbled by the amount of support shown by players, parents, volunteers, other clubs, people within the community and further afield. 

"You throw something up on Facebook and you've got the local steam train railway guys saying 'come and borrow our gurney', the show society saying to us 'we know you don't have water down there... you can tap into our water to clean your shed out',” Hallam said. “It's good. Really heartwarming."

Hallam, a mother of three children aged 11, 15 and 20, who also owns her own small business, said the only way was up. 

"We can't get much worse than this," she said.

"This insurance claim is our biggest thing. To make sure our teams have all the equipment that's needed, that our canteen is fixed and fully stocked because that's our biggest revenue maker. We need to get that up and running so we can start hosting games. We host a lot of local school sporting carnivals across the year too and the first one is supposed to be in three weeks' time. That's fundraisers for our clubs, and without a canteen, that's big."

Stanley River secretary, groundskeeper and under 8 coach Sammy-Jo Richardson said "oh my god, we've got some work to do". 

"We're gutted... all the hard work, all of our stuff, is gone," Richardson said.

"I feel for the kids who have had a hard time with schooling, it's not consistent at the moment and this is their safe place. This is their get-out to be normal kids and we can't offer that to them at the moment.

"It's not safe. We don't have anything for them. We don't even have footballs really."

Richardson, a mother-of-four, said it would take "hard work, donations from the community, donations from the NRL, council" to help the club get back on its feet, but in the meantime, the rugby league community had rallied and the club appreciated it.

"We're a family.... I never knew family until I came to football and I'm from a large family.. I've got 11 brothers and sisters," Richardson said.

"Football has not only brought us closer together as a family, but it's brought the community together. Basically, without football, I don't know where some of these kids would be, I don't know where some of these families would be. 

"Situations like this is where the community spirit comes out. The football spirit. We've had clubs that have gone under message us and ask if we're okay. It's blown me away how people are putting other people first. We haven't seen that in the last few years.

"When it comes to floods, disasters, bushfires... the love and support you get from people is overwhelming... being able to joke and laugh, that's been great.

"We haven't cried yet. I think Mary-Anne and I, once it's done, will sit down de-brief and have a good cry, but we'll hold it together until it's done because tears aren't going to put this place back together, hard work is."

Queensland Rugby League Sunshine Coast area manager Nathan Mclean said he was not surprised by the support shown during this period.

"It's fantastic but I'm not surprised, because it's a great community, it's awesome," Mclean said.

"It's outstanding to see everyone here. Getting amongst it. It will take quite a bit to get this club back on its feet. While we're here sorting all of the superficial stuff... it's the nuts and bolts that hold the place together.

"You can always have fantastic volunteers, but they need the tools to be able to run the club. A lot of that stuff has been thrown out. While there's some encouraging signs around insurance, there will need to be some funding from the government. Has started, but it will need to increase to assist the clubs to where they were.

"In the Sunshine Coast catchment, this club and Gympie are the worst. Gympie has been five or six days under water, which is incredible, but it's starting to drop  now. We'll be helping them clean up too.

"Sunshine Coast prides itself on all the clubs...  there's been plenty contacting Mary-Anne, seeing what they can do. We are a real family, the Sunshine Coast. I'm pretty proud."