Health, safety are important

Hello everyone, welcome to the 25th ‘Churchie’s Comment’ for the year in your favourite rugby league newspaper — The National.
The SP Hunters travelled to Maryborough on Friday for their round-15 Queensland Intrust Super Cup (ISC) clash with Wynnum Seagulls. Maryborough is a four-hour bus ride from our Runaway Bay base.
Wynnum had taken their home game to the region and had a specially designed jersey to celebrate and support “Deadly Choices”. Deadly Choices is an Indigenous support programme that aims to close the gap in education and health between indigenous and non-indigenous Australians.
On Friday afternoon, we did our captains run and mingled with the local football community who had gathered to watch our training session.
Friday evening saw us welcomed by the local government officials and indigenous leader who also designed the Wynnum jersey. The players and staff were thanked for their sacrifices to be in Queensland and to keep the ISC).
Saturday morning dawned and the players went through their traditional morning team walk. Not long after arriving back in camp, we watched on the live news that Southeast Queensland was entering a snap three-day lockdown. After an emergency phone call, it was declared that the round had been cancelled.
With much disappointment we packed up the hotel and returned to Runaway Bay. The Hunters have undergone many obstacles in their 2021 season and this was another one.
Eight hours of travel and no game can leave you quite deflated. We, however, understand that the health and safety of participants and communities is important and support the Queensland Rugby League in line with Queensland government’s decision.
We have since learned that our three-day lockdown has now been extended to this Sunday at 4pm. A competition-wide meeting was held online and it was decided that round 15 was cancelled as many teams had already travelled last weekend. Round 16 this weekend has been postponed to potentially after the last round of the competition (round 19).
Should the lockdown be lifted on Sunday then the competition shall resume as per the original schedule. This would mean our next game, on Aug 14, will be against Tweed Heads Seagulls. Here’s hoping we get the all-clear to resume the competition.
While challenging to be in full lockdown, we are lucky enough to be locked into a high performance facility. Access by the outside public is blocked.
The Hunters have complete access to the centre so we are to continue to train, using the gym, pool, recovery facilities and field.
Situated on a large sprawling allotment of land means the boys still have room to move around and get fresh air and live as close to normal as possible.
Spirits remain high and we want to finish the season strongly. We are happy to wait out the lockdown but nothing beats being able to do what we love and that is play rugby league.
Until next week, stay safe, play safe and let’s all respect and be kind to each other.

Cheers,
Matt