Season 2022 is wrapped – the weekly match ups, thrilling finals series and premiership showdowns.
But footy itself is far from done for this year, as we enter carnival season 2.0.
Already this week we have seen cultural programs and carnivals happening across the state.
The Murri Carnival is underway at Redcliffe and will run until Sunday. The Bindal Sharks All Blacks Rugby League Carnival will be played this Friday, September 30, and Saturday, October 1.
Up north, they are preparing for a host of important carnivals next month, particularly the NPA Carnival – or Ropeyarn Cup - in Bamaga at the end of October.
The Queensland Pacific Island Cultural Carnival (QPICC) will also return later this year (main image).
What these carnivals represent is about so much more than just footy.
While rugby league is obviously an important element, these carnivals are also about fun and family. They are about communities getting together at this time of the year to celebrate the good things that have happened. It’s about catching up with friends.
The Queensland Rugby League is proud to support these carnivals in whatever way we can because they’re an integral part of our football calendar.
Really, it’s like the footy never ends.
But, with season 2022 done and carnival season 2.0 underway, the planning for 2023 has already begun.
The QRL’s Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) Committee met recently to start planning for next year.
We already have an idea of what we want our themed rounds to be for the 2023 season and have a clearer direction on the desired outcomes and the impact we want to make on the wider community by being involved in those rounds.
Elsewhere within the QRL, we are also continuing to work towards our female strategy.
The latest update I can provide is that we are getting towards that “pointy end”. The strategy is being compiled and the regions are giving their input.
We are also currently working on our regional and remote participation plan, which will ultimately help us to have more visibility in those communities.
Some of the work we’re doing in our regional and remote communities I shared recently and I’m happy to see that those initial conversations have led to more work being done in these areas.
We have just seen both Palm Island and Woorabinda hold first aid courses for rugby league volunteers, as part of their ActiveKIT funding, with a number of people in both areas taking part.
We can also proudly say that through a lot of the work being done, we now have 150 people with the right accreditations across six Indigenous communities in Queensland.
This is a huge step forward in getting them on the field next year and having them participate in the game of rugby league in 2023 without having to worry about finding coaches, match officials and more.
The work being done now is going to help long into the future.
