Could the Clydesdales gallop back into the footy spotlight?
26 August, 2015 11:23AM AEST
It has been almost a decade since southern Queensland had a team in the state rugby league competition, but Toowoomba football fans are hopeful the time is now right for the Clydesdales to make a return.
The Queensland Rugby League (QRL) recently met to map out the future direction of football in the sunshine state.
QRL chairman Peter Betros says Toowoomba is the only gap in the competition after successfully expanding into Papua New Guinea and Townsville.
"It's a rugby league nursery of long-standing repute," he said.
It is heartening news to Toowoomba Rugby League boss Paul Dean.
"As far as I can see, everyone would be a winner," he said.
"It would improve the local competition, and our top kids wouldn't have to leave Toowoomba to play on."
Toowoomba's representative team, the Clydesdales, has a long history of playing state football, but left the Queensland Cup competition in 2006 due to a number of factors, including financial pressures.
Mr Dean says the past decade of not having a top-tier team has impacted on the local game.
"In time you lose a lot of younger players coming through because there's no pathway," he said.
"But there's definitely hunger for great rugby league in this town, it's the number one sport in town, and having a Queensland Cup team strengthens and lifts the level of your own local competition, and with a good league we get good spectator numbers."
Mr Dean says the Clydesdales traditionally drew players from the surrounding districts, and he hopes to widen the range of coaching clinics to smaller southern Queensland towns.
"We'd like to end up with clinics as far out as Roma so the young 11 and 12 year-olds will be trained and coached to the same level, and they could then come in and fit into a Clydesdale's side later on," he said.
Mr Dean says the "secret" to the Clydesdales having a bright future is "serious" financial support.
"Teams like this don't come cheaply, you're talking hundreds of thousands of dollars," he said.
The Clydesdales are now in talks with the QRL and hope to be able to field a team as early as 2017.
