Eighteen years in the making, Burketown cheers live rugby league return

Burketown is bursting with pride after being able to play rugby league on their home fields for the first time in 18 years as they hosted a round of the Gulf Cluster competition.

Teams from Normanton, Croydon, Doomadgee and Mornington Island visited Phillip Yanner Memorial Oval on July 27 for a day of junior and senior footy, which is thought to have increased the usual 200-odd occupancy of the town - Moungibi in Gangalidda language - to close to 1000 people.

Moungibi Rugby League Club committee member Kevin Anderson said it meant a lot to see so many people step up to ensure the day ran smoothly.

"All the communities have got these champion people who step up all the time and facilitate and run the competitions. Without the committee we've got here of Moungibi, this would never have happened," he said.

"It's so important to make sure you've got that and plenty of volunteers to be able to support you on the day, which was great to see.

"It was a good outcome for everyone. Financially (the town) had been hit hard by the floods around here, so (the games) brought some really good money back into the community and everybody just had smiles on their faces afterwards.

"For the size of community, we hit well above our weight.

"For us it was a huge deal, and the best thing is the money the community put up just to make it happen, all the businesses, everybody dug deep and they do at the pub every Friday night, we do a raffle and raise $500 every Friday, so the community just keeps on giving."

Burketown has copped some terrible luck in recent years amid trying to upgrade their rugby league facility.

The Moungibi club received funding five years ago to get the necessary works done and were almost ready last year until severe flooding in March 2023 and then again earlier this year delayed the process.

"Just after the floods, it really tore at the community, a lot of depression in the community, so for us (rugby league) was a way to bring the community together and move forward together," Anderson said.

"We'd been given some money over five years previously to get the grounds up to spec, then we had the floods (in 2023 and 2024) that damaged the grounds, so we worked really hard with Burke Shire Council and Moungibi Rugby League Club to get the ground up to spec again.

"We ticked the boxes and to be able to hold (games) for the first time in 18 years was great.

"It's really important you involve the whole community. Being a small community, if you get everybody on board, it makes the job a lot easier."

Anderson said it was pleasing to see so many local families and kids get involved, and especially to see his son Kieran, 28, play again "with all his mates he grew up with".

"They've been going really well, the ladies (Moungibi Magawas - Magawas meaning 'women') finished top of the ladder, and the men's team (Moungibi Danggara - Danggara meaning 'men') made it to the final, and with all the clubs it has been a really good competition all year, none of the scores have really blown out, it's been a close competition," he said.

The Gulf senior competition will conclude with finals in Normanton on August 24, where the hometown favourites the Stingers will look to defend their men's crown.

Normanton Stingers treasurer Tiaywanah Young said it was gearing up to be another fantastic day following the wonderful weekend in Burketown, giving her own insight into the efforts the Moungibi committee put into making it happen.

"It was lovely, Kevin and the Moungibi football club did an amazing job to pull off what they did with their floods in the last couple of years that just washed away the fields completely. I take my hat off to them, I know how hard it is," she said.

"We get well looked after by the council with our fields... but Kevin and (the committee) have been down there watering it with a gardening hose and sprinklers from the backyard.

"The hard work and dedication we put in in the Gulf to get any event up and running is big, and to accommodate all the other communities as well, it's a big job."

While Young will be busy doing much of the organising on finals day, she said the atmosphere of it all made the running around worth it.

"It's hectic, it's absolutely chaos, but it's amazing.

"You start at 4 or 5 o'clock in the morning, depending on what needs to be done, down their setting up the clubhouse, making sure everything is set up in the canteen and the bar, all the volunteers setting up everything, our QRL reps Mel (Hodgetts, Mt Isa league and club co-ordinator) and Jade (Johnson, Mackay/Mt Isa area manager) are absolutely amazing and help with the official side of things

"The passion and the love for football in our communities is like nowhere other. I've never seen anything like it, on the field and off the field, spectators and players.

It's just full of noise and love and everyone yelling and cheering. It's the best thing ever.

"Win or lose, it makes all the hard work worth it watching the kids, the men, the women, the passion on the field, the hundred hours you put in volunteering for the year, you forget about all the hard work and look at the joy and the pleasure on everyone's faces and it makes up for it.

"We're all very excited. It has been a non-stop subject and it won't be the non-stop subject til probably a month after the grand final, depending on the winners, especially in our town."