Mini Maroons: Celebrating the kids of Queensland
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The great sport of rugby league starts with kids.
The importance of Queensland’s grassroots can never be underestimated and so, Queensland Rugby League wants to celebrate the children of our game - our own Mini Maroons. We are united in maroon.
Whether it’s someone making their debut or scoring a hat-trick or saving the game, we will share their stories and applaud their achievements across our three regions - QRL North, QRL Central and QRL South East.
QRL Central
Two Bundaberg girls are ready to tackle a whole new world this year.
The Eastern Suburbs Magpies RLFC under 11s team will welcome two female debutants in 2022, with Madison Phillips and Brielle Czapracki playing rugby league for the first time.
Both come from dance backgrounds and both are eager for a new challenge.
For Madison, it’s about following in her father’s footsteps.
Her mother, Jesika MacDonald, said Madison – who is in her fourth week of training – made the decision to take up rugby league out of nowhere, but it was a call that made the whole family proud.
“Her dad played rugby league for the Magpies when he was younger,” MacDonald said.
“She’s grown up hearing all his stories and she’s pretty athletic so she thought she’d give it a go.
“She was actually doing hip hop dancing and randomly just decided she wanted to finish up with that and play rugby league.
“She’s loving it already. We’re quite proud of her for wanting to get into that sort of sport. She’s not thinking about anything other than that she’ll enjoy it and she wants to do it.”
Brielle, meanwhile, was inspired by her brother.
Brody Czapracki, 14, lives in Townsville with his father, while Brielle lives in Bundaberg with her mother, Katrina Gregson.
But the distance does not disrupt their close bond, with Brody introducing Brielle to rugby league, the NRLW and her favourite player, Dragons centre Jamie Chapman.
Watching these games motivated Brielle – who also does dance, drama, outrigging and flying lessons - to try her hand at rugby league.
“She’s been nagging me for about 12 months,” Gregson said.
“She’s been dancing since she was two or three years old and does a lot of dance. But she just started nagging and nagging me.
“I have finally given in.
“I’m from Tasmania and Victoria, I went to school with Adam Goodes and I played AFL growing up. I’m AFL through and through. But up this way, it’s all NRL.
“Her brother set her up to watch the game on her iPad. He reminds her when the games are on. She’s just really keen to get started.”
QRL North
The Andrew Beazley Memorial Shield produced plenty of great football when it was played in Atherton on Saturday March 12.
Kids of all ages treated the trials almost as if they were grand final matches and there were exciting tries, big hits and powerful plays all around.
But it was two massive try-saving tackles in the under 14s trial between Cairns Brothers and Atherton Roosters that caught the attention of many spectators.
Cairns fullback Taani-Lave Torney may be small in stature, but the daring 14-year-old is not afraid of any opponent.
On two occasions one of Atherton’s biggest forwards steamrolled his way down the field, breaking through for what looked like certain tries, with the home crowd cheering him on.
And on both occasions it was Taani – who was half the size of the opposition prop – who stopped him in his tracks.
It was a true David versus Goliath effort.
But for Taani’s coach Sonny Samuel, it wasn't out of the ordinary.
In fact, the trial against Atherton was Taani’s first game in about seven months after he broke his arm last season and missed Brothers’ finals campaign – and he returned without hesitation.
“He’s very fearless,” Samuel said.
“He’s like a little chihuahua. He doesn’t care how big the kids on the other team are, he’ll start roughing them up, tries to jump all over them… he really gets stuck into it.
“Last year he broke his arm in a big tackle and he wanted to go back on the field. We didn’t know it was broken. He was just saying his arm was sore but he wanted to go back on.
“He’s good kid, just a really good kid. His brother (Tjarn ‘TJ’ Koka) plays in the Northern Pride under 18s.
“TJ was the same as Taani. He was really small, never made any rep teams growing up, but has just sprouted a bit and he’s worked so hard on his game and he gets picked for the Northern Pride.
“Taani is going to be the same.
“At training, I try to get him to teach the little boys. They need to learn from someone like him. If he’s going to hit the big boys, it gives them that confidence.”
QRL South East
Carina Junior Rugby League have had a tough couple of weeks.
Like many clubs across the southeast and central regions, they were hit hard by the floods.
One of the club’s fields was completely inundated by water and they lost all their training equipment after their gear shed was also hit hard.
For the kids, it meant 10 days of no training after already experiencing uncertainty around the start of the schooling year due to COVID.
“It does affect them,” club secretary Jessica Gregg said.
“It’s 10 days’ worth of no training for any of them… they get disappointed.
“A lot of them understand what’s going on because of the areas they come from where they have neighbours and family that are flooded.”
But for the under 8s Carina side, the joy of a recent outing to Suncorp Stadium has outweighed the uncertainty and disappointment of the last few weeks.
At the Brisbane Broncos’ Round 1 match against South Sydney on March 11, the under 8s team took part in the NRL club’s half-time mini league competition.
A combination of Carina’s three under 8s teams were selected to go and Gregg said they were blown away by the experience – a just reward for a rocky start to 2022.
“It was the first time for all of the boys and both the coaches that went with them,” Gregg said.
“They were all a bit excited. They were in rows two and three and there were lots of little excited children.
“It’s definitely a big experience for them.”
A number of junior clubs across Queensland are still taking registrations for season 2022. Sign up here.
