Extraordinary Queenslanders fuelled up with Shell V-Power

Author: Jacob Grams QRL community content producer
Timestamp: Tue 19 Nov 2024, 10:52 AM

Some of the most well-travelled contributors at community rugby league clubs and referee associations throughout Queensland have received an extra helping hand from Shell V-Power.

Chosen from nominations for the 2024 QRL Community Volunteer Awards, 16 contributors have been provided Shell V-Power fuel vouchers as a reward for their efforts in addition to dozens more already handed out at bush footy clubs this year.

It all helps with the travel that is just a part of the game for volunteers, particularly in regional communities, which is something Nadine O'Farrell (pictured above) would know well in her roles with the Tully Tigers in the tropical north.

The 13-year volunteer was the club's secretary and registrar in 2024, putting 15 hours per week into those roles on top of working hard behind-the-scenes on game day with jersey, dressing room and referee room prep, before popping on to the sidelines as the interchange official for A grade.

2024 QRL Community Volunteer Award winners honoured

But that is far from the end of it for the Tigers' Club Person of the Year and Cassowary Coast Australia Day Award winner for Service to Sport in 2024.

"I make sure all the senior grades have their jerseys ready to go every game, meet the bus at 2am when they come back from away games... sometimes they're back at 1am or 2am," O'Farrell said.

"I just meet them and get their jerseys and take them to the laundromat and put all the gear away and all that type of thing.

Tully Tigers' Nadine O'Farrell fills many roles, including as the interchange official in A grade competition. Photo: Maria Girgenti/QRL

"We wouldn't have football if people weren't going to do it, and in a small community, you do things like that.

"I'm the president of the netball club as well and the secretary of the Show society, so if you didn't do it, then we wouldn't have those things."

O'Farrell said pitching in was the ultimate way to get to know people in the community, something she embarked on after being transferred to Tully in 2011 for high school teaching.

"I hardly knew anyone at all and I just went: 'I'll go and meet people and volunteer'," she said.

"I find when you volunteer, you make great friends. You're not lonely. When you're new to a town, go to a club and volunteer because you'll meet new people."

And her next favourite thing was people offering to pitch in, encouraging people to "suss it out" with their committee.

"Go and ask people to see if they want help, work in the canteen. I worked in the bar for ages before I got on to the board and did any of that," O'Farrell said.

"Volunteer in your bars, in your canteens and then you can find out what's going on in the club and be proactive."