State Government must not forget Ballymore in stadium code war

THE redevelopment of Ballymore must remain an urgent case for the State Government even with the purse strings seemingly open to fund a home for AFL’s Brisbane Lions.

Young Reds players Angus Scott-Young, Hamish Stewart, Moses Sorovi and Taniela Tupou at Ballymore. Picture: Annette Dew

THE redevelopment of Ballymore must remain an urgent case for the State Government even with the purse strings seemingly open to fund a home for AFL’s Brisbane Lions.

This has never been an AFL or rugby union decision.

It can’t be because rugby’s need to find a lifeline out of financial hardship in Queensland is all linked to turning Ballymore into a profit-making precinct.

Ballymore is a wonderful home but it’s a $1 million-plus lead weight on the balance sheet when annual upkeep and depreciation are factored into the ground’s negligible revenue.

Young Reds players Angus Scott-Young, Hamish Stewart, Moses Sorovi and Taniela Tupou at Ballymore. Picture: Annette Dew

The powerful plan to turn it into the hub for women’s rugby in Australia by transforming outdated facilities into a National Rugby Training Centre makes perfect sense.

You can only guess at the palpitations among rugby’s boardroom types this week when a $15-million injection was touted for the Lions to finally set up home at Springfield.

That’s the figure State Sports Minister Mick de Brenni last month promised to come up with if the Lions could first gain a promise for the same amount from the Federal Government.

The federal money will come through regional development, which is the big plus the AFL have worked with because Springfield falls in the Ipswich City Council area.

Is rugby in danger of now missing out on the $15 million submission it has made to the State Government?

There’s no way it should now it is looking far wider than the male, pale and stale stereotype it once had.

Women’s rugby participation, in sevens and 15-a-side, is through the roof and indigenous rugby participation nationally was up 134 per cent off a small base last year after a long period of neglect.

The success of the Deadly Sevens program in schools was part of that indigenous turnaround and players like Kurtley Beale, Moses Sorovi, Harrison Goddard and Braydon Law are now beacons at Wallaby, Super Rugby and sevens levels.

More than 50 per cent of the Reds squad have Pasifika heritage and there are similar numbers throughout rugby’s pathways pushing positivity into their communities.

Rugby had plenty of growing up to do.

It has been uneven and slow at times but the code desperately needs a kickalong to a bright, even more inclusive and well serviced future.

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HOW young the Brad Thorn makeover is at the Reds can be measured by the four squad members expected to play for the Australian Under-20s on the Gold Coast tomorrow night.

Towering locks Harry Hockings and Angus Blyth, prop Harry Hoopert and halfback Tate McDermott will all be trumps against New Zealand at Bond University from 7pm.

Originally published as State Government must not forget Ballymore in stadium code war