I come to you from the QRL North rebel State Development Series carnival in Townsville for our under 15 boys, where we have teams from Mackay, Cairns, Townsville and the Central Highlands participating across the next two days.
These aspirational athletes are hoping to put their best foot forward in hopes of being a part of their respective statewide competitions affiliates in the under 17 Cyril Connell Challenge for 2024.
Additionally, it's to come together and collaborate and put into practice all that they've learnt on and off the field as part of the RISE program in 2023.
It's beautiful weather and we wish all players and coaching staff have success. I'm sure it's going to be a cracker.
A shout out to the coaching staff for the effort they've put in not only this weekend but over the last eight weeks in delivering these programs.
It's a huge commitment and on behalf of the QRL, we're entirely grateful.
Volunteers are the backbone of our organization and these people have done one hell of a job not only in this program, but also in our earlier under 13 and under 14 RISE program for 2023.
The end of our competition season has officially come to a close, so now we head into a bunch of Indigenous carnivals across the region.
These carnivals are a celebration of culture, families and honouring those who may have passed through memorial teams.
They're wonderful events and I encourage you all to, if you're in the areas, get down there and experience what our Indigenous carnivals are all about.
We've got the Mackay Indigenous Carnival next weekend, followed by the Bindal Sharks carnival on October 14-15, the Gordonvale carnival on October 21-22 and the Dan Ropeyarn carnival in Bamaga on the last weekend of October.
The latter carnival, hosted at Yusia Ginau Oval, usually draws in a crowd of 1500-2000 from all over the Cape York Peninsula and throughout the Torres Strait.
This year will be one of the biggest since its inception, with 14 men's teams and 6 women's teams participating.
Defending premiers Malu Kiwai (Boigu Island) and Pioneer Dames (Rosehill, Thursday Island) will both be back to defend their titles.
The Dan Ropeyarn carnival will be a fantastic follow-up to the remote area forum being held in Cairns next weekend.
About 40 administrators from Normanton, Croydon, Bamaga, Thursday Island, Torres Strait outer island, Hughenden, Richmond, Mornington Island, Kowanyama, Weipa, Mapoon, Hopevale, Wujal Wujal, Pormpuraaw, Aurukun, Cooktown and Doomadgee will be in attendance with representatives of local government and state government agencies.
The intent of the forum is to equip, empower and inspire communities to ensure a future of sustainable offerings and competitions for 2024.
We hope this is part of building on the big wins of 2023, in which we've had a record year of participation on the field and from our volunteers.
While we've had some incredible highs, we've had some lows to tackle, but it takes away nothing from what our game represents - families, friendships and the positive impact we have on our communities, and it's a responsibility we don't take lightly.
We won't be resting on our laurels as we head into our review and planning for 2024.
Part of our review is to work very closely alongside our leagues and clubs for feedback on programs and events to ensure when we go into our regional planning meetings with both the QRL and NRL game development team, collectively we ensure we're putting the game in the best place heading into 2024.
Shout out
A shout out to our NRL referee development officer in the North, Denise Weier. Denise has been at the forefront of our region's huge amount of carnivals with the organisation of our match officials to ensure they have a successful time and an enjoyable carnival themselves. It's no secret that these match officials have done so many games this year and it's an area we need to address as a game collectively moving forward. We are so grateful for the group of match officials we have up here in the North, right from our ones on the field and our match day coaches, facilitated by our local associations. They have made great strides on the back of the club officiating program piloted in our region - so much so our surrounding regions are looking at implementing it as well.
