THE Mount Isa Mongrels Police rugby league side has won the Queensland Police Service rugby league state championships defeating the Brisbane Bulldogs in the grand final.
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The Mount Isa side travelled to Airlie Beach for the annual event, which included a two-day bus trip.
The Mongrels began the tournament with a loss to the Townsville-based Northern Stingers, who were the eventual runners-up for the carnival.
After their slow start the Mongrels, who had neither played nor trained together, put together a 28-16 win against the Southern Boars in the plate semi-final.
In the Plate Final, the Mount Isa side came out on top in a hard fought 26-14 win over the highly fancied Brisbane Bulldogs.
Senior Sergeant Brad Rix said to win any silverware at this particular carnival was a huge achievement.
“The Mount Isa Police side is comprised of players essentially from the Mount Isa Station, plus a few from Normanton, Cloncurry and Julia Creek,” Rix said.
“Throw in a teacher, a paremedic, and the father of a Cloncurry PLO, and the side is formed.
“The accessible player pool is limited, owning a pair of boots is about the only prerequisite to playing, and passing the ball to each other on the bus trip to the championships has been the extent of any pre-carnival training.”
This can be compared with sides such as the former three-time champions, the South Eastern Muddies, which represents the entire South Eastern Police Region made up of both the Gold Coast and Logan Police Districts.
“Sides such as this have a huge talent pool at their disposal, and the opportunity to train and play trial matches.”
Two Mongrels players were also fortunate enough to earn representative honours.
Senior Constable Andrew Cridland and Constable Kurtis Ritchie gained selection in the Queensland side for the coming tri-series against New South Wales, and an Affiliated States side.
Both officers have represented Australia previously and it is hoped by the local police community that they continue their success in this year’s state side.
“A huge thank you goes to the side’s sponsors, many of whom have been financially supporting the team for a number of years,” he said.
“Our major sponsors are K and R Contracting Cloncurry, Oze Cool Electrical Cloncurry, Cloncurry Tyres and Batteries, and Fred Brophy Boxing Troupe.
“With the exception of Fred, we owe a huge thanks to the business people of Cloncurry for helping us with what is a very high cost to send a team away each year to the state carnival.”
