Rugby crowd head for Albion for state-against-state showdown

Brisbane’s corporate world will descend on Brothers Rugby’s HQ Crosby Park this Saturday for the 50th anniversary of the Gallagher Australian Club Rugby Championship.

Brisbane’s corporate world, including beer baron Bernie Power and Alliance Airlines boss Scott McMillan, will descend on Brothers Rugby’s hallowed turf at Crosby Park this Saturday for the 50th anniversary of the Gallagher Australian Club Rugby Championship.

The showdown between Randwick and Brothers, the winners of last year’s Sydney Shute Shield and Brisbane’s Hospital Cup respectively, is expected to attract a big crowd. Among the spectators on the VIP deck will be naming sponsor Gallagher Insurance Brokers represented by local executives and Brothers stalwarts – Tony Shaw and Paul French – along with high-flying fellow tournament sponsor Alliance managing director Scott McMillan. Although Sydney-born and bred, McMillan is an avid sponsor of the Queensland Reds and Wests Rugby Club. As a curtain-raiser to the main game, the Brisbane 2023 premiership runners-up Wests take on winners of the Canberra club premiership Tuggeranong Vikings in the Challenger’s Match.

Brisbane Brothers v Northern Suburbs in the 2017 Australian Club Championship.

“This is a very important event for not only the clubs involved, but for rugby and the broader rugby community,” says Brothers president Geoff Rodgers. “We are positioning this as a celebration of community rugby which is very strong and the real bedrock of Australian rugby. We warmly invite all rugby supporters to come along and join us for what will be the culmination of an exciting three-day grass-roots carnival.”

Other business leaders attending the derby will include Rugby Australia chairman Dan Herbert, Queensland Rugby Union boss Brett Clark, Wests president and Morgans Financial chief executive John Clifford, Stores Local managing director Hans Pearson, Brett Walker (BWC Group), Hamish Winterbourne (Robert Walters), Glenn Rohrig (Rohrig Constructions) and Paul McLean, the former managing director of Savills Australia.

Brothers play Randwick in the main game at 3.30pm to compete for The Power Challenge Trophy – which will be presented by Bernie Power, who has played this role with the Australian Club Championship since the mid-1980s.

Brighter future

Brighter Super chief executive Kate Farrar is stepping into the top job at the Queensland Futures Institute (QFI), the policy think tank on the state’s economic and energy future. She is replacing former Brisbane Airport Corporation boss Julieanne Alroe, who spent a decade in the position. The new role doesn’t mean any change to Farrar’s existing role at Brighter Super where it’s business as usual. Farrar is a former managing director of QEnergy and chief operating officer at Ergon Energy Retail as well as holding down senior positions at Morgans Stockbroking, McKinsey and Company, and Suncorp. “We stand at the cusp of shaping a brighter future for Queensland, our regions, through a lens of growth and innovation,” says Farrar. Alroe has agreed to continue her support of the QFI as immediate past president.

Kate Farrar, the CEO of Brighter Super.

Star Effort

The Star Entertainment Group has announced an increased boost to koala protection north of Brisbane as part of a carbon emissions reduction program.

The gaming giant has launched the second phase of its native forest regeneration at Corymbia after last year planting, 63,000 native trees to establish a sanctuary for wild koalas and other endangered species. Another 43 hectares is now being planted as part of phase two.

The Star Entertainment Group managing director Robbie Cooke says the company secured Corymbia in 2021 as an extension of its sustainability strategy to help manage its future carbon emissions reduction and support biodiversity and native forest regeneration.