By Ron Lane
Last week at Noosa Dolphins Rugby Union club, the junior members were excited to have a visit from two members of the Queensland Reds: James O’Conner and Lawson Creighton both senior players working under the direction of Reds Coach and former All Black Brad Thorn.
These visitors were just two of the Reds who are presently visiting various Regional clubs to promote the game in the best possible way. The Dolphin visitors both have successful careers, with James O’Conner playing 55 tests for Australia and has also capped a total of 71 games for the Super Reds. He has also played for the Western Force and also spent time in Europe. Amongst other achievements he was also the youngest player to score a try on debut for the Reds.
For Lawson Creighton it will be his first year in the Qld Reds in the Super Rugby competition. He has earned his place by playing good solid rugby for Brisbane Brothers and now this will be his big opportunity. But now along with other team mates he is promoting the game. While visiting the clubs it is the rule that the players are billeted with host families thus promoting the game to the utmost. This we were told is a Thorn concept bought over to Qld from his All-Black experience in promoting the game.
After the visit, they will be presented with the Dolphins jersey which the visitors will in turn present to the Qld Reds. While both players were visiting Noosa, two others were also visiting a rugby club in Gympie. This is indeed a good indication of how much the game has spread. In the old days such a thing would be unheard of : Gympie was a solid Rugby League town, with a total of four very strong senior clubs and an equal number in the reserve grade division. On several occasions the Gympie Rugby League played host to the Wide Bay vs Visiting International teams; such as Great Britain , New Zealand and France. We wish the Queensland Reds and the Dolphins all the best for the season ahead.
For our competitors in the lifesaving world, last weekend saw them travel from all up the Queensland coast to assemble at Maroochydore for the annual Murphy Homes Maroochydore Classic Surf Carnival: the big carnival on Saturday and the surf boats Round 2 of the Qld Cup on Sunday. It is now 10 years since Murphy’s first step forward to do so: a great thing for the Maroochy club, but even greater for the lifesaving movement in general. For this, we in lifesaving thank them most sincerely.
The carnival which was run over two days (Saturday and Sunday) saw good conditions with just enough surf to make things interesting. On the Saturday invited boat crews competed for selection to represent Queensland at the Australian Surf Rowers League Championships: for our local Noosa club the end results were good. With 6 crews invited to compete, two made it through to be selected for the State team.
The u/19 girls crew known as the Kookaburras and the reserve grade women’s crew the Bower Birds were selected. “We were very happy with the results,” said boat sweep/coach Dave Toomba. For Dave the results were a double header: his daughter Ayva-Maree was a member of the u/19s crew and his wife Kate a member of the reserve grade. “This I believe is the first time ever in surf boat competition that a sweep has had his wife and daughter selected to represent the state ” he said with a laugh.
In other events Noosa’s results were good. In a major blue- ribbon event the Open Men’s Surf Race, Nick Sloman of Noosa won the gold medal. “For this young man it was a well- deserved result,” said head coach Darren Mercer. “He has been really training hard: in pool and open water, he has put his heart and soul into everything he does and he is still an outside chance for Olympic Selection. We wish him well.” In other results Noosa in u/19 boys finished 3rd board relay and 2nd and 3rd in ski relay. For u/17 girls it was 2nd in board relay, 3rd in the surf teams and in the open board relay it was third.
Despite not winning medals, it was good to see Noosa with two women in the Open Woman’s final of the Iron Woman and the men finishing in 6th place in the blue -ribbon Open Taplin relay. Speaking after the carnival Coach Darren Mercer said, “What was good for us was the performance of our u/14 and u/15 youth (both boys and girls) for it goes well for our future plans.”
For Sunshine Beach it was also a good carnival. In the U/14beach flags they finished 1st and 2nd,u/17 girls ski race 2nd, u/19 men’s Taplin 3rd and u/14 Cameron relay 1st. It is good to see both clubs doing well in the Taplin relay, as this is a good indication as to the depth of athletes’ in the clubs.
On Sunday Murphy’s play host to Round 2 of the Petroleum Qld Cup for surf boats: it too was well supported, with many crews from NSW competing and with a 1mt swell and a big chop, it made for interesting rowing. For Noosa in the women’s category results were as followers: Open/Reserve 2nd, u/23 2nd and 3rd,u/19 1st. In the men’s Masters 160+ 3rd and 240 + 2nd.
Perhaps the greatest thing about the Saturday carnival, was that the attendance of competitors and sup[porters was the best in years. Another highlight was that all the big successful clubs were in attendance. This tells us that the competition was first rate and that our clubs, Noosa and Sunshine, are definitely holding their own in the field of surf sport.
What is really good news for Surf Sport is that on the February 13 the Noosa Surf club will hold the Noosa Youth Surf Boat Carnival for U/19s and U/23s. With the boat sections starting to get stronger every year, this should be a good event to see.
