For Noosa Pirates Rugby League Club, the season is definitely on the move.
Club president Paul Dwyer is confident.
“For our senior and junior grades our numbers are good right across the board. One thing we would like to see is more young girls joining to play tag football. These teams will start at U/11 and go through to the U/13,15 and 17. Our code is now really starting to spread its wings.”
For head coach Brett Winkler the season is now full on. They recently travelled to the Sunshine Coast Stadium at Kawana where their four senior league teams (men’s Divisions,1,2 and U/18s and Open Women’s) took part in the inaugural Sunshine Coast 9s Tournament.
The club flyer tells us that it was a big day with teams from all-over south-east Queensland participating. Both the Men’s Division 1 and the Open Women’s played well and made it through to the semi-finals with both teams going down narrowly.
The Division 2s and U/18s missed out on the finals but there were some great numbers and some very promising performances in their first hit-out of the year.
Pirates Rugby League action will really go into overdrive at Pirates Park Tewantin from this Sunday 5 March with the first of three big weekends of footy action. This Saturday the Sunshine Coast do battle with the reigning Queensland Cup Premiers Norths Devils in Host Plus Cup action at 6pm. This will give Pirates supporters a chance to get up close and personal with some of the biggest emerging stars in the game, many of whom are being tipped to play NRL this season.
The undercard match at 4pm sees the Falcons versus the Devils Colts in the U/21 action. Supporters are advised to get there early as last year was a huge event with plenty of former Pirates players going round for the Falcons.
This will be followed next weekend, Saturday 12 March by the first official 13-a-side trial game for the Noosa Pirates this season. The Division 1 & 2 teams will both turn out against Toowoomba Souths in what promises to be a great game, as both sides blow out the cobwebs to get their season underway. There is also a strong likelihood that the Wenches will also be going around as well on the day – but stayed tuned on that one.
Then to put an end to the triple treat, Saturday 19 March sees the mighty Pirates play Maroochydore in the final pre- season hit out, before the competition officially starts two weeks later. Despite being just a trial game, there will be some fierce rivalry and plenty of feelings after the narrow loss to the Swans in last years final epic.
Division 2 and U/18s will also be in action with play starting mid- afternoon, for a main game start around 6pm. This will make for another huge footy fixture at Pirate Park Tewantin.
Make sure to note in your diary that the season will start with round one on 2 April. The Pirates are away for their first few games and will have their opening match on 23 April as part of the Anzac Day clash.
With Brett having stepped aside as general manager of the Noosa Pirates Rugby League Club we thank him for his time and effort, and now wish him every success as head coach of the mighty Pirates.
