Mid-season shock: Major change to Toowoomba Rugby League as clubs vote out traditional finals

The Toowoomba Rugby League is set to undergo a monumental change in 2024 with clubs voting in favour of a big move. Here’s how the new season will look following the controversial decision.

Gatton Hawks celebrate after their victory over the Roosters in the 2023 Madsen Rasmussen Cup.

One of the biggest days on the Toowoomba Rugby League calendar has been cancelled with the Madsen Rasmussen Cup final day thrown off the table for 2024 in a shock move.

The Madsen Rasmussen and President’s Cups will instead be awarded to the minor premiers of each grade at the end of the year.

“There was a lot of discussion, all of the clubs were involved in respect to the mid-season final and there was a majority consensus that they weren’t keen to continue the mid-season final due to the impact on players,” TRL president Joe Hannant said.

“The format has changed in the sense that it will be awarded to the minor premiers at the end of the year but still including those historical and important names.”

A vote was originally made in person by the TRL club presidents where they voted in favour of keeping the mid-season cup final day.

However, a second vote was made by clubs sent out over email, where a majority was in favour of changing the format.

“We had quite a few clubs respond so those that responded, I think it was well over 70 per cent of clubs responded and the high majority just didn’t want to play it,” Hannant said.

He said this was a vote which had been brought up after discussions over the future of the mid-season cup final day had been brewing for a few seasons.

“Obviously there are clubs that are in support and want to have it but the overall majority didn’t see the value in actually having it and thought it was a detriment in respect to having a final in mid-season,” Hannant said.

“A few clubs over the years have been impacted by season-ending injuries and the clubs were just not in favour.

“We are always there to try to improve and grow our game and it is a change that has come as time has potentially caught up.

“We are not going to force any clubs to do what the majority of clubs don’t want to do, we are all about working with the 12 clubs and working to grow our game and to make it better.”

While the mid-season cup final day will not be going ahead in 2024, the decision to keep the trophies and instead award them to clubs to honour the history of the competition was of high importance in the decision to change the format of the competition.

“With anything, things change, our game is over 100 years old and history is hugely important to our game, to the Toowoomba Rugby League and to all the clubs,” Hannant said.

“We have a couple of clubs that commenced the competition well over 100 years ago when the TRL was formed, so we are steeped in tradition and we embrace that tradition.”