FOR the first time in more than 20 years the Cunnamulla Dingos will return to the field this month.
A casual chat between Laurie Bateman and now team manager Jesse Moody last year has lead to the revival of the rugby union club for a two match series against the St George Frillnecks.
While Mr Moody only expected 20 people to sign up for the series, 37 players have joined the squad.
So committed are the players that some of them are doing a 200 kilometre round trip each week since December for training in preparation for the matches on February 25 at Cunnamulla and March 11 in St George.
Mr Moody said rugby had been missing in the town.
“We were just saying to Laurie (Bateman), it would be good to be able to play rugby here,” Mr Moody said.
“A lot of us grew up playing rugby union at boarding school.
“We all understood that it would be too hard to commit to a season and there were a fair few people who would play union and not league and vice versa.
“There is a vibe around town ...and the whole district is coming in to watch the game.”
The Cunnamulla Dingos ceased during the mid 1990’s and were a part of the South West competition between teams including Charleville and Quilpie.
Among the players on the original side, Trader Schmidt will line up for the team once again.
While it might have been a long time between play the locals at Cunnamulla haven’t lost their bite.
“We are hoping to win it undefeated,” Mr Moody said.
“They (St George) gave us a scrum machine because they said we would need all the help we can get.”
St George Frillnecks president Ben Gardiner said the match was sure to be a hard fun game of country rugby.
“We have had a quick run at the Roma 7s in the heat and that got our cobwebs off the boots,” he said.
“We can’t wait for it...some people will drive a long way to watch a game of rugby.
“It’s great for us because it just improves our player base and if we get stuck midway through harvest which we do we can say, ‘Fellas, have you got a few to help out this weekend?’.
“It’s a lot of mate playing mate.”
So will this be the start of a bigger playing roster for Cunnamulla?
“A few of the younger guys would be keen to play in a season but we haven’t got the numbers to back it year in year out,” Mr Moody said.
“We will be keen to play the odd game against Roma or Condamine.”
The first match will be at John Kerr Park, Cunnamulla with kickoff at 7pm.