Junior Devils overcrowded, forced to play late and share fields

Floods wiped out the Junior Devils home ground in 2022, leaving more than $150,000 in damages in their wake. But the grounds had needed an upgrade years before that. See what club president Andrew Noy had to say and vote in our poll:

The Gympie Devils Junior Rugby League Club has outgrown its grounds at Jack Stokes, which have needed an upgrade for almost four years.

The club is among many sporting organisations The Gympie Times is advocating for as part of its Save Our Sport campaign, launched in the wake of rapid population growth, devastating 2022 flood damages and a $1million sport budget dropped by Gympie Regional Council, with no help in sight.

This all comes on the back of unanswered cries from a number of sporting bodies over the past several years for more playing fields and better infrastructure.

Junior Devils’ club president Andrew Noy said on Tuesday Gympie needed a large sporting complex to accommodate all sport clubs in a flood-safe zone.

Similar to other clubs in Gympie, the Devils numbers have been growing at a “phenomenal rate”, Mr Noy said. The club currently has about 380 juniors playing.

It often hosts matches as late as 8pm, meaning away teams such as Caboolture have to drive through the night just to get home.

The Junior Devils play at both Albert Park and their own field, Jack Stokes Oval.

Jack Stokes Oval has become far too small to accommodate the team’s training sessions and games and Albert Park is often unavailable to hire.

The club shares Albert Park with four other clubs, including touch, rugby union, football and little athletics.

Albert Park has gone underwater twice in 2022.

It was closed again this week after rain on Sunday night, June 5, left the grounds – still damp from the floods – sodden and full of puddles. Cold winter temperatures meant it was unlikely to dry out before next week, Mr Noy said.

Games and training sessions at Albert Park are often rearranged to accommodate field sharing with other sports. These last minute changes often left busy parents frustrated. They often had to reschedule their week, or cancel training completely.

Tino Fa'asuamaleau visits his junior club, the Gympie Devils at Jack Stokes Oval.

The Junior Devils committee is a small team of five, making the club “just about a full-time job”.

It copped a devastating $150,000 worth of damages in the February floods with additional costs to come, Mr Noy said.

The clubhouse was under 4.2m of water and the club had only recently managed to get it up and running again.

Mr Noy said he felt frustrated at the current situation: Gympie is in dire need of more sports facilities but the funds have disappeared.

“We’ve got to keep fighting for it,” he said.

“We just need more room.”

Sport kept children active and helped them build relationships, he said. It was not only good for the children; it gave adults opportunities to meet new people, especially with new families moving to Gympie all the time.

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