How league legend Laurie Daley plans to save Junee Diesels
The Junee Diesels have existed for 93 years as a prominent country club, but that could all be about to end. Well aware of the struggles, NRL icon Laurie Daley has a plan to rescue his junior club.
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It’s Laurie Daley’s gift to his junior rugby league club that is facing having to give up 93 years of history and tradition.
The Junee Diesels could be forced to amalgamate with Group 9 rivals Cootamundra due to lack of numbers.
As the most famous Diesel, Daley is desperate to ensure the club that helped him become a league legend stays alive as a single entity for years to come.
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It’s why the Canberra, NSW and Australian Hall of Famer is planning to a host a development day in Junee this October.
Junee president Simon Van Zanten couldn’t be happier to have Daley on board to help during one of the club’s darkest hours.
“It’s huge,” Van Zanten said about Daley supporting Junee, a country club that has also produced former NRL players Adam Perry and Michael Dobson.
“Laurie will help with all the kids from the schools with clinics.
“We can sign up more league tag players and under 18s players, so we can have a side next year.
“We will also do a bit of a function afterwards so we can raise a bit of cash.”
The prospect of a proud club like Junee amalgamating has understandably upset a lot of people.
The Diesels recently held a State of Play meeting, where over 60 people attended, including 50 who have promised to help.
A number of sub-committees have been formed to help attract playing numbers and form teams.
Despite the serious concerns, Van Zanten is confident that Junee won’t have to become a joint-venture club.
“We’ve got a really good 15s team who are playing in the grand final,” he said.
“They will be our 16s next year, which will give us one junior team and hopefully we can push for an 18s side as well.
“We’ve had one junior team in our seniors in the last eight years, so we’ve had no junior kids coming through and it’s why we are in the state we are at the moment.
“But it is disappointing that it had to get to this stage for people to realise that the club needs help,” he said.
“It got too much with certain people doing everything for the club so we really had to put it out there to get people to get off their bums and come and give us a hand.
“We should have four teams next year and maybe five with a good 16s backing up and helping out our 18s.
“That will give us a future moving forward if they go on and play in our senior ranks.”
Van Zanten is frustrated about Junee’s player shortage predicament but he knows the Diesels aren’t alone.
“There are a lot of country clubs struggle and we need more help,” he said.
“I’m a development officer who works with all the juniors but it’s getting harder to keep players due to their work commitments.
“It isn’t just rugby league. It is sport in general once kids reach their teenage years.”
Originally published as How league legend Laurie Daley plans to save Junee Diesels
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