There is always a silver lining, well nearly always.
The positive of the COVID crisis is a bunch of NRL teams are on the Coast and playing more games at Sunshine Coast Stadium.
Last week we hosted Raiders v Storm and Manly v Parra within a couple of days of each other. It was awesome.
I think one thing we probably tend to overlook is how good our stadium looks on the screen going around the country and around the world.
It is a fantastic opportunity for the Sunshine Coast. The stadium looks a picture, which gives us great credentials as a sporting destination and also boosts tourism. Well done to the council.
Credit has to be given to the mayor who has always had the long game in mind when it comes to the stadium, not just footy but a diverse use, which is great for sport/entertainment/lifestyle tourism.
It actually makes me laugh that there was a really strong lobby from some folk around the coast that the stadium was in the wrong location.
They did everything they could to try and stop support for improving that precinct.
I suppose that group will pop up again now the Olympics is happening with a push away from Kawana but, of course, everyone is entitled to an opinion. My humble one is the stadium is in the right spot.
Hopefully the cavalry will come and support some more infrastructure in and around the precinct.
Making history in the sin bin
I mentioned last week about the Warriors’ Kane Evans brain explosion and getting put in the sin bin twice.
Well, I have a similar story. My relationship with the sin bin began in 1981 in Longreach when it was first introduced to the Central West.
Round 1 first half I was the first player to be sin binned in the competition and it made the front page of the local paper.
I had a pretty healthy – or should I say unhealthy – relationship with the bin over the years as it was a rest and I wasn’t very good.
But it was in 1987, Maroochydore v Caboolture, that I excelled.
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It was a reserve grade game and we had played them the week before and I wasn’t getting on particularly well with the opposing prop.
So midway through the first half we both were put in the bin for fighting. As we returned to the field coach Harry Reed came down to the sideline for what I thought would be a spray but, no, instructed me to “do it again”.
So, when back on, I resumed hostilities and it was back in the bin. Harry then tells me on return to do it again, so I did, and received another 10.
We won the game, and it was about 20 years later when I went to work for him at Reed Property Group that he told a full staff meeting the reason he told me to keep doing it was he knew we had a better chance with 12 men than with me playing.
If you have anything I can help you promote in local sport now it is back on, yippee for that, email me at tugboatash@gmail.com
Ashley Robinson is a columnist with Sunshine Coast News and My Weekly Preview. His views are his own
