https://www.townsvillebulletin.com.au/sport/nrl/cowboys/the-nrls-suspension-has-claimed-more-than-50-cowboys-positions/news-story/b68c359cf8c788e3b4afc1804fdb07e6 IT WAS with a heavy heart that North Queensland Cowboys chairman Lewis Ramsay announced the widespread standing down of club staff. But from this harrowing chapter in the rugby league’s history came a powerful message: “We will survive.” In response to the NRL’s decision to suspend the 2020 season, more than 50 Cowboys staff members were stood down from their roles with a skeleton staff retain to handle administrative duties. It has meant the majority of the club’s administrative team and football department — including coach Paul Green and director of football Peter Parr — are without roles for the foreseeable future. Mr Ramsay said that while the NRL were working on scenarios to resurrect the season this year there was no guarantee what that would look like.
For that reason, he said, they were preparing for the best and worst case situations to guide the Cowboys’ long-term sustainability. And while he was unable to specifically touch on the club’s financial position, Mr Ramsay was adamant they would survive this ordeal. “The board has decided on this position that to ensure the survival of the club we need to preserve the club for the benefit of all stakeholders in the future,” he said. “The decisions we’ve made are in the interest of achieving that. “We’re prepared to dig in, the reason these decisions have been made are to ensure we’re here for the long haul. “The North Queensland Cowboys have been through tough times before and we intend to be here for a very long time, so we needed to take definitive action and make some really quick decisions once the announcements were made this week.” Cowboys CEO Jeff Reibel said the changes would have ramifications across their community endeavours as well, such as Cowboys House — the extent of which will continue to be determined as the situation develops. As for the future of the club he said two important areas were the anticipated Community, Training and High Performance Centre as well as the survival of their QRL feeder teams. Mr Reibel said the $20 million NAIF loan secured last year would still be kept for the high performance facility, while communication with the Townsville Blackhawks, Northern Pride and Mackay Cutters would continue to come to solutions on how they can keep afloat. “The High Performance Centre is something that is so important to the success of our club long term,” he said. “It is our intent for that to move forward and we will continue to look at how we can make that happen. “The QRL at the moment is stood down until June, and no doubt that is a moving feast as well. “Just like all of the stakeholders we’re dealing with, the feeder clubs are very important to us and also very important for us to be ready when we’re back playing football, so we’ll continue our dialogue with them.” The club said it was their intention to return the people stood down to their roles when it was viable to do so.
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AuthorThis section showcases a collection of some of the work I did covering the North Queensland Cowboys - from match reports, to player features to breaking news. Archives
June 2020
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