Bid a stroke of genius: Durkin

Geoff Murphy at the official CQ NRL team bid launch.

Chris Ison CI17/0409/2

FORMER long-time Rugby League Week editor and current Observer columnist, Tony Durkin, says the CQ Bid team has delivered a stroke of genius - and at precisely the right time, too.

“To be perfectly honest, the professionalism of the announcement surprised me,” he said.

“I had heard very little of the bid prior to last week and did not really think CQ was in the running for an NRL team. The street corner talk had been the Sunshine Coast and Ipswich.

“But with Queensland climbing all over the top of NSW in recent years to take the title as No.1 rugby league state, it seems opportune that we should have all bases, and regions, covered.

“The Cowboys engulf the north, and the Broncos and Titans - current joint NRL leaders no less - cover the south east-corner, so why not a team based in CQ?”

Durkin said the obvious impediments were those that hamper most audacious forays into something new - facilities, expertise, population and funding.

“From the outside looking in, it appears Geoff Murphy has assembled a local bid team with plenty of experience and enthusiasm,” he said.

“At the moment the economy is not exactly booming, but when the mining industry comes back into its own, funding should not be an issue. No doubt the big companies will be keen to get behind a national sporting team based in their region.

“And if the likes of Jason Hetherington, Gary Larson and Mark Graham approach this with the same tenacity they played the game, they will be extremely valuable lobbyists.”

The ex-Broncos communications manager said he was confident the other Queensland-based NRL clubs would be supportive of the bid.

“I don't think there is any doubt a new franchise will be invited into the NRL in the next few years, and I don't need to have the brilliance of Einstein to suggest that it will be based somewhere in Queensland,” he said.

“I doubt the Broncos, Titans or Cowboys will feel threatened in any way by a team playing out of CQ, and I'd hope the three other clubs will give them much advice and support. The Titans have made one of the smoothest entries of recent times, and when the Broncos came in back in the late 80s they were like a breath of fresh air to rugby league. The CQ Bid team would be well advised to tap in to any resources these clubs are prepared to offer.”