2023 NSW Touch Junior State Cup: Dubbo Mayor expects more than $7 million to be injected into the region’s economy

Dubbo has been chosen as the next venue for the 2023 NSW Touch Junior State Cup with more than $7 million to be injected into the region’s economy. Read the details here.

More than 10,000 people will be coming to Dubbo for a three-day touch football competition which is set to inject approximately $7 million into the region’s economy.

Dubbo Mayor Matthew Dickerson spoke to media at Lady Cutler Oval to make the announcement with more 30 sporting fields to be used from February 24-26 as the city prepares to host the 2023 NSW Touch Junior State Cup.

“It really highlights what we’ve got here in Dubbo, in terms of the great sporting fields that we have,” Mr Dickerson said.

“Also [we’ll be able] to show off some of the great assets … with our zoo, the Old Dubbo Gaol, the Rural Flying Doctors Service and Wellington Caves, it will be a fantastic weekend for Dubbo.

“That number of people coming here for that weekend won’t all be able to stay here in Dubbo, so we’ll see Narromine, Wellington, Gilgandra all full over that weekend.

“We’re going to show NSW Touch what a fantastic weekend we can have there and hopefully go forward to get more of these tournaments.”

Originally, the tournament was expected to be held on the north coast of NSW, however due to recent floods, NSW Touch was forced to look at alternative locations and finally settled on Dubbo.

General Manager of NSW Touch Dean Russell spoke of his excitement for choosing Dubbo as the replacement venue, with the city submitting “an outstanding bid” that “we couldn’t pass up”.

“We’ve copped some pretty bad weather conditions where we haven’t been able to complete the event in the last two years,” Mr Russell continued.

“[Dubbo] is a great venue, there’s plenty of space, we’re going to be able to accommodate 10 to 12,000 people to come through the region.

“They’ll be here for [three to] four days, they’ll be playing touch, but they’ll also be filling out the cafes, motels, and all the shops around the region.

“It’s a really exciting time for us, especially after the last 12 months that our sport has endured with Covid and the weather conditions.”

The competition will involve up to 250 junior touch football teams from across the state, and Mr Russell shed light on the long list of “talent” taking the fields next year.

“We’ve got some kids there playing in the under 18s who are already in the Australian under 18s squads,” Mr Russell said.

“From that perspective, there is tremendous talent, but some of the kids that are on show even down to under 10s and under 12s, I look back at them and thank my lucky stars I wasn’t playing against them because they are unbelievable.”

Dubbo Touch Association president Neil Webster echoed Mr Russell’s comments, explaining that trials are already underway with teams expected in each age division.

“You’re going to be playing against the best of the best, the city teams and the strong country teams, so you get to test yourself against [them] which is a good thing,” Mr Webster said.