Petition goal: 50,000

THAT’S OUR TEAM: Rockhampton’s Les Robb (proudly wearing a CQ NRL bid cap) wants CQ to win an NRL franchise.

GLADSTONE'S daily newspaper The Observer has teamed up with The Morning Bulletin in a bid to get more than 50,000 signatures of support for a Central Queensland-based NRL team.

Observer editor Meredith Papavasiliou yesterday committed to partnering the “Our NRL Dream” campaign which was launched by Morning Bulletin chief of staff Darryn Nufer last Saturday.

Both publications are part of the powerful APN Australian Publishing stable of 14 daily newspapers.

Today's Observer front page carries details of the paper's own push for support.

The Our NRL Dream campaign and petition supports the CQ NRL bid team, led by chairman Geoff Murphy, which is aiming to secure an NRL licence by 2013.

In another development yesterday afternoon, the CQ NRL bid official website was launched ( www.cqnrlbid.com.au).

The Bully's petition can be downloaded from the website.

Mr Nufer said the goal of 50,000 signatures was not unachievable.

“There are 450,000 people within a 300km radius of Rockhampton from Bundaberg to Mackay and west to Longreach,” he said.

“This petition is Central Queensland's chance to say to the NRL - where's our team?” Another area vying for an NRL franchise is the Central Coast of New South Wales.

The North Sydney Bears bid committee is chaired by Perry Lopez and one fan, Alan McLoughlin, a Central Coast resident, has set up a petition he hopes will crack the 50,000 mark by 2012.

Mr Nufer said the closing date for the CQ petition was May 31.

“We want to get as many signatures as possible by then.

“Once we have a total tally, we always have the option of extending the closing date.

“Once signatures are counted, all petitions will be given to the CQ NRL bid team to present to NRL boss David Gallop.”

As of yesterday more than 2500 people had registered support for the CQ NRL bid through social networking website Facebook.

Rocky resident and league fanatic Les Robb yesterday said he would definitely buy a season ticket if CQ had an NRL team.