Cairns Brothers crowned best regional Queensland rugby league club
A total of 17 teams were in the running to be crowned the best regional Queensland rugby league club, with a Far North powerhouse taking the title from their Mackay counterparts. FIND out who was crowned the best here >>>
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The trophies keep coming for Cairns Brothers in 2024.
Only days after the club captain-coach, Jordan Biondi-Odo was crowned the best senior coach in Far North Queensland, the club has been named the best rugby league club in regional Queensland.
Brothers Head of Coaching Tim Rumford said the club is extremely honoured with this.
“It might be a successful year for us, but it hasn’t all just come from this season,” Rumford said.
“It has been a working progress for a number of years now to get the club to where we are both on and off the field.
“To be named the best regional club is a true honour for the club especially coming up against teams like Sarina and Mackay Brothers.
“Being in the same category as them is a credit to what we have achieved as a club.
“Now it is about sustaining this and continue to build the club both on and off the field.”
Brothers claimed their third Far North Queensland Rugby League premiership in three seasons this year in September with Biondi-Odo being crowned the best coach at the beginning of November.
A total of 17 clubs were nominated from regional Queensland with Brothers claiming the most votes by subscribers.
Two of Mackay’s powerhouse clubs, Sarina Crocs and Mackay Brothers round out the top three.
“People see what we do on the field but not everyone is aware of what we do off the field as well,” Rumford said.
“We have the all abilities carnival which is the only kind of it in our region.
“We believe that everyone should be able to play rugby league or get the opportunity to and these are the types of things our club do for the region.
“Going out to schools to get the junior kids involved in rugby league and developing the junior pathways for our sport in our region.
“We want to continue to grow the game, and the players, the members and the board at our club should be really proud of what we do and to be crowned this award.
“Again it is because of their hard work that we get this award.
“Now we look to next year and make sure we continue to grow, not just as a club but the competition and the sport in our region.”
Sarina president Shannon Cleary praised the handwork the club has done both on and off the field.
“I think it’s our involvement in the community, and the way we involve ourselves with the juniors. It gives us that bigger supporter base compared to some other clubs.
“I think that definitely helps, over the past couple of years we’ve done multiple community engagement days which I think has paid off.
“If you look at our supporter base on the day of the grand final, you sit back and think where did all these people come from?
“It will be 100 years of Sarina rugby league coming up for us in 2025, so it’s a good feeling to be going into that as the A-grade premiers.
“Success in A-grade can translate to success across the whole club and that’s what we want. The goal is to be strong across all grades next year.
“It’s one thing for us to take away the A-grade premiership and those achievements don’t come too often, however, we’ve already been working on and planning for consistency across all grades, that’s our hope for 2025.
“We’ve got a good junior base coming through in the under-20s next year, which will have a positive effect for our men’s grades.
“There’s kids that are coming through who have already made A-grade debuts which will continue, and we’ll keep recruiting across men and women to help them stay strong.”
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Originally published as Cairns Brothers crowned best regional Queensland rugby league club
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