IT’S like ‘State of Origin’, but with more local legends.
Tim Scantlebury has organised the North vs. South rugby union grudge match, a showdown between both ends of the Gold Coast to see who is dominant on the field.
“It would be great to develop a state of origin type of theme within the Gold Coast,” Mr Scantlebury said.
“As far as I know this hasn’t been done before so hopefully it’ll become a yearly event and the two teams can develop a healthy rivalry.
“There are plenty of rivalries, some teams and players have bad reputations that become really well known through the rugby community so this will be a good way to find out who’s the best.”
The teams will be divided according to geographic locations, with Helensvale Hogs, Gold Coast Eagles, Nerang Bulls, Coomera Crushers and Griffith Uni Knights in the north and Surfers Dolphins, Bond Pirates, Palm Beach Alleygators and Coolangatta Barbarians in the south.
The aim of the day is not solely to decide who is better at footy, however, with all proceeds raised through entry, a raffle and sponsorships going to the Starlight Children’s Foundation.
“I wanted to help the Starlight Children’s Foundation because they are such a selfless charity working towards such an important goal,” Mr Scantlebury said.
“I’ve played rugby since I was four years old, rugby is what I know and love and there’s definitely a bit of a divide between north and south so I thought this was the perfect opportunity to raise some money.
“All the players are really excited to get involved in a charity event, especially supporting a charity like Starlight.”
During the organisation of the event, Mr Scantlebury hoped it would reinvigorate the Gold Coast rugby union scene after a rough year.
“At the start of the year rugby on the Coast looked as if the season may not go ahead.
“The Bulletin actually ran stories on it, about how Queensland Rugby Union took over but the previous admin was in of debt.
“Fees went up and it really put a downer on the season so I’m really hoping something like this event will lift the community a bit and put the wind back in their sails.”
“I think it’ll bring a lot of players who don’t usually see eye-to-eye together too because they’ll be playing on the same team and will realise they’re not that different — we’re all just footy heads.”
The event will have a heavy focus on community and bringing people together with two matches, a jumping castle, bubble soccer, food trucks, beer on tap and music.
Originally Mr Scantlebury only intended for one match, however was blown away by the response from clubs and players who wanted to play.
“We started with just one opens men’s game but then I was approached by Jerry Karati who wanted to do an over 35s game,” he said.
“They’re rapt they’ll get an opportunity to get away from the younger players and hit it out among themselves.
“I’ve had so many people contacting me asking how they can get involved and play; everyone seems really pumped about this event.”
Kick-off is at one o’clock Sunday and Mr Scantlebury has picked the south to sneak in with a win.
“My personal pick is that south will win because first of all I’m from Broadbeach and secondly they have the Surfers players who won the grand final 42 to 12 against Griffith,” he said.
“But the northern end has more teams to select players from so it actually could be pretty tight.
“It should be a pretty high calibre game, I’ve asked the teams to put their best players forward.”
“A couple of people told me it wasn’t going to work and that no one would be interested, they said “Don’t do it” and I just said “I’m probably just going to do it anyway,” so hopefully they weren’t right.”