| By MITCHELL DALE THE first steps have been taken towards dual-registering every senior rugby league player on the Sunshine Coast with a local club and the Sunshine Coast Falcons FOGS Cup team.
It is a move which would enable the Falcons to pick any player on the Coast for the FOGS Cup.
Since the Falcons’ inception last season, players have either signed with the FOGS Cup team or one of the nine SCGRL sides that play in the Maroochy RSL Cup.
The proposal, which is designed to have the best 17 players on the Sunshine Coast playing for the Falcons every weekend, was tabled at a lengthy meeting on Monday night.
Under the proposed system, the Falcons would name their team on a Tuesday morning, with players not included in the 17 going back to their SCGRL clubs for the rest of the week.
The nine SCGRL clubs did not officially vote on the proposal on Monday.
The meeting was held to give the clubs a chance to air any issues they have with the Falcons. One of the main concerns was that the Falcons were taking players from the local clubs, but none were filtering back.
SCGRL CEO Billy Moore believes the nine local clubs will support the Falcons provided all the concerns are addressed.
“While there are still one or two big issues to finalise, we’re closer now than we were 24 hours ago,” Moore said.
“The FOGS got an updated view from the perspective of the nine SCGRL senior clubs and what they thought were problems and issues that had arisen over the past 14 months. All the clubs said they would support the FOGS if they can see certain things happen.
“Now the FOGS need to address those concerns.”
Moore said an alliance between the FOGS Cup team and the nine local clubs would only be good for rugby league on the Sunshine Coast.
“They’ve all got to work together,” he said.
“The FOGS have to be the representative side of the Sunshine Coast, not the 10th club team.
“At the moment, I think the clubs sense the FOGS as competing for the players, sponsor and supporters.
“If we can raise that FOGS structure to a certain point, I know we can take it to Queensland Cup with the assistance from outside, in the form of an NRL club.”
Falcons CEO Brett Winkler said the club was committed to working with the local clubs.
“We conceded that we haven’t done things as well as we could with the clubs in the past, but as a fledgling organisation, there are always things to work on,” Winkler said. “We are not going to drain local clubs if don’t have to. But the local clubs have to understand we are giving players the opportunity to play at a higher level without leaving the Sunshine Coast.” |
