More photos below a message from NSWPRL President Rod Sheraton
WHAT A WEEK OF FOOTY
One week since we kicked off our carnival at the fantastic Newcastle, it is only right to look back on what many have described as our greatest ever carnival.
The weather was great which always helps and with 8 men’s teams and 6 women’s teams that gave us over 400 participants which created a fantastic atmosphere throughout the week.
The ground at Newcastle Sportsground No 2 was in fantastic shape yet again and is an ideal venue to hold our carnival just 2 hours from Sydney.
What made the week so good was the great competition with most matches all week coming down to the final seconds to determine a result. We have not seen such even competition in many years and it certainly was exciting for those watching.
We had excellent coverage of all our games with Live Stream provided by our good friends at Spot on Video and expert commentary by James ‘Sully’ Sullivan who always does an outstanding job.
Great photography throughout the week by our expert photographer Matt Long who is highly credentialed and does a fantastic job taking photos of our players throughout the week which we share on our socials. Well done Longy.
A massive thank you to the guys from PANSW and Police Bank who ran our canteen all week. They raised 8k for Police Legacy which will be held and donated to someone in need connected to Police Rugby League in the future. Great job gents.
We also are in the midst of forming our own Family of League committee to raise funds for those in need within our Police Rugby League community. NSWPRL Life Member Dougie Keen will head this new committee with Paul Quigg and we look forward to supporting that in the future. A great initiative and we already have some funds raised after our clubs purchased crazy socks for our Family of League day on the Wednesday. A big thanks to all our clubs for getting behind it.
The Wednesday night function at NEX, Newcastle was a terrific event and attended by 460 people. The highlight was the attendance of our Commissioner Mal Lanyon who also attended some of our games on the Wednesday afternoon. The Commissioner gave a fantastic speech to the crowd on Wednesday night and he was extremely supportive of Police Rugby League and the wonderful culture of friendship and competition it brings within NSW Police Force. It was great for NSW Police Rugby League to have the Commissioner attend and at the same time it was great for the Commissioner to be in attendance amongst so many young police from all over the state. I am sure we will continue to see him more at our events in the future.
The crowd were also well entertained by the hilarious Tahir who gave a great performance. The crowd participation was awesome and highly entertaining.
We also honoured two well deserved Life Members in Glenn McDougall and Sean Hampstead whilst honouring our much loved outgoing President Steve McDonald after 20 years running our game.
A massive congratulations to our two Premiers in Macarthur Bulls for the men and Eastern Suburbs Wombats for the ladies. Two great successful clubs who know how to win premierships.
Congratulations to all those that have been selected in our City and Country representative teams. Your selections are all well deserved and we look forward to hosting this event at Kiama/Gerringong in early June.
I must thank our loyal sponsors who are so important in what we do. Not only do they help us with the finances to do what we do but they consistently turn up to our events to help out and support us. Thank you Brydens Lawyers, Police Bank, EML, Crimsafe, Dimeo Cleaning, PANSW, Zoom Energy and Ports of Newcastle.
The NSWPRL committee needs a mention as well. A thankless job but filled by people that are passionate about NSW Police Rugby League continuing and being successful. Thanks to each of our committee members for everything you do.
Finally a big thank you to those hard workers at our clubs that continue to deliver. Without these hard workers that organise sponsors, find players, order gear, book accommodation, arrange medical support etc, we just wouldn’t have the great clubs we do have in NSW Police Rugby League.
Our season has just kicked off and we look forward to a great representative season now and we will share those events as they come up.
Yours in Police Footy
Rod Sheraton
President NSWPRL
Thanks to the Wombats, Cowboys, Manly, Bankstown, Parramatta, Penrith and Country south.
