State’s junior touch footy champs cancelled at last minute with wet weather blamed

Wet weather has been blamed for the cancellation of a major Queensland youth sporting event that would have brought more than 10,000 people to the state’s regions.

Officials have blamed recent wet weather for forcing the cancellation of a major Queensland youth sporting event that would have brought more than 10,000 people to regional Queensland.

The Queensland Touch Football Junior State Cup was scheduled to be held for a three-day event in Hervey Bay from Thursday to Saturday, bringing together around 230 affiliate teams from as far away as Townsville to the north and Tweed Heads to the south.

In a statement posted to social media on Wednesday afternoon, Queensland Touch Football CEO Greg Denny said the organisation was “absolutely devastated”.

“We looked at countless scenarios of split venues, revised draws, shorter event days, shorter game times, reduced number of games and more,” he said, but that “we needed to consider the safety of all 10,000 people attending the event and the venue’s ability to safely manage mass gatherings.”

“We had to make a tough decision, but it was the best decision.”

He said that while the competition has been held in rainy conditions before, unprecedented heavy rain this year had seen 14 of their usual 22 fields closed.

The statement was issued on Wednesday afternoon. Supplied.

“Having only eight fields to play 560 games, safety was our main concern as the quality of the remaining fields would continue to worsen once play commenced.”

The reaction from many on social media was mixed, with many suggesting that while it was a tough decision to cancel the tournament, it was the safest choice.

“Incredibly tough decision to have to make,” wrote Marni, adding that “I’m sure you’ve done everything possible to try and proceed with the event.”

Her sentiments were echoed by Fabian, who said that the decision “is what it is.”

Others, though, were less impressed, calling for an explanation as to why the decision to cancel the event was made so close to kick off, when many families had travelled to the region and booked accommodation for the event.

“Extremely frustrated that this decision was not called on Sunday or Monday to avoid families travelling and the outlay of accommodation expenses,” Karleigh said.

Others shared her point of view – Michael pointed out that the frustration at the decision was “about the timing of the cancellation. Another 24 hrs would have been nice.”

Responding to Michael’s comment on Facebook, Queensland Touch Football said that “sadly there is never a good time to cancel an event.”

“We too are just as devastated and disappointed.”

A number of other people also voiced their disappointment.

“This is absolutely disgraceful,” said Michelle, while Aneta put it simply: “What a joke.”

Mr Denny said event fees would be refunded with further updates provided over the coming days, and apologised to families who had already arrived in Hervey Bay.