SSportswatchportswatch Summer 2015-16 Sport portfolio to Treasurer; Netball, Golf and Cowboys score at Sport Awards / Hall of Fame The Queensland sporting system has entered 2016 with Queensland Cowboys took out the XXXX a new State Minister for Sport in Treasurer Curtis Pitt sponsored Queensland Sport Team of the following the Cabinet reshuffl e prior to Christmas. Year category. The North Queensland MP for the seat of Mulgrave For more information on the Awards / Hall replaced Rockhampton MP Bill Byrne and adds sport to of Fame, see Pages 13, 15, 16 and 18. his ministerial responsibilities in a year that will see him directly involved in the resolution of support for State level organisational development of sport in 2017 and beyond. Inside The reshuffl e followed hot on the heels of another From the QSport Offi ce Page 3 successful annual Queensland Sport Awards / Hall of Fame Presentation that saw netball and golf to the fore with State support for sport - Page 5 fi ve of the 14 Awards presented and netball’s Vicki Wilson A work in progress elevated to Legend status in the Queensland Sport Hall of Fame. ASC Chair’s plan to Page 10 QSport Patron in Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk made her transform sport fi rst appearance at Queensland sport’s annual “night of the year”, along with nearly 800 other guests to see some Sport Awards Summary Page 13 of the best in the Queensland sporting system past and Queensland Sport Awards Page 15 present acknowledged for their achievements on and off the fi eld of play. In what was a big night for netball with Awards going to three of its contenders, golf’s Jason Day was named The Courier-Mail Channel 7 Queensland Sport Star of the Year Award while the NRL Premiership winning North Sportswatch is a quarterly publication of QSport which is an independent collective of State sporting organisations established to enhance the development of sport in Queensland. Sportswatch aims to inform readers and views expressed in Sportswatch are not necessarily those of QSport. No responsibility is accepted by QSport for consequences emanating from actions or failures to act on material within this publication. For contributions, advertisements and enquiries, contact the QSport Offi ce at Sports House, Cnr Castlemaine and Caxton Streets MILTON Q 4064 Telephone 07 3369 8955 Facsimile 07 3369 8977 Email [email protected] From the OOffiffi ccee This summer edition of Sportswatch should hit the but Australia Day reminds us we have evolved mail boxes and computer screens of its readers in signifi cantly over the past couple of hundred years early to mid-February, as summer is making way to enjoy one of the best existences overall in an for autumn, at least on the calendar. increasingly troubled world. Like many of those readers, I have returned to Closer to home and what QSport and its member work full time in late January after what has been State sporting organisations are about in part and a fair bit of a breather over the Xmas / New Year to varying degrees of reliance, activities the State festive season break. Government supports have been the subject of external review in terms of the effectiveness of the The day after Australia Day each year signals the funding provided to those bodies over the past fi ve start of the resumption of full on engagement years against the objectives set for that funding by between QSport and its member State sporting the administrations of the day. organisations after the end of year / New Year summer holiday period. The conclusions of such review and reactions to those conclusions will inform the dialogue The fi rst few weeks over Xmas / New Year and into between government and sport at the State level January are generally the best time for the majority about the way forward for sport over the latter of sports’ offi ce bearers, paid and volunteer, to take part of the term of the current Parliament and a well-earned break to recharge before throwing beyond the next State election. themselves back into the fray for another year of sporting involvement. With decisions on what is to happen, why and how in terms of support for State level sport That said, that doesn’t apply to most involved with in 2017 and beyond, beyond the Gold Coast sports which conduct competitions in summer Commonwealth Games in 2018, the next few such as cricket, surf life saving and swimming and months will be vital to the prospects of ensuring also elite competitions in the likes of the A-League, a satisfactory outcome for sport and government W-League, NBL, WNBL, ABL and in more recent and the Queensland community they both seek to times the Big Bash which, from this year, has had serve. a women’s dimension as well as the men’s version, both doing well in terms of support. Like many others on holidays in December-January, I ate a tad too much, read a lot of non-work related It doesn’t seem all that long ago that there was material and watched with pleasure as young no such thing as the Brisbane International Tennis and old enjoyed Xmas and then with dismay as Tournament, the Roar and the Brisbane Heat, all the behaviour of others young and not so young of which point to the evolutionary nature of sport impacted on them and others, their families and and its impact on us. friends and indeed all of us. Traditional forms of media and now social media There is no doubt that the closer to home violent bring us the good, the bad and the ugly in the incidents occur, the greater the impact. world we live in, including our sporting choices. So when a young water polo player has his life The extended holiday period over summer here snuffed out as a result of another young man generally means a more relaxed environment allegedly wanting to show his friends “something Sportswatch - Summer 2015-16 3 funny” in the early hours of the morning, it That’s not forgetting, and just as importantly for impacts – and so it should. some, whether Kevvie Walters’ Maroons triumph over the Blues, whether the Cowboys, Firebirds The changing face of sport in summer here over and the Townsville Fire go back to back, whether the years demonstrates that innovation in sport is the Roar can beat earlier off fi eld drama to revisit real. premiership glory, whether the Broncs can go one So, too, is progress on more balanced participation better, whether the Reds, Lions and Suns and when one thinks about the arrival of bigger other Queensland sporting teams go well. and better competitions for women and girls in Teams like water polo’s Brisbane Barracudas, so traditionally male dominated sports, a trend that used to success, and baseball’s Brisbane Bandits, will accelerate in the next few years. the latter after their fi rst ABL championship since 2016 will see a Summer Olympics in Rio de Janeiro, 2006 and playing the ultimate decider at home for after World Cups last year in cricket, football, the fi rst time in over 20 years. netball and rugby union in which Australian teams And hopefully, in what would be fi tting tribute, performed admirably. in its own way as signifi cant as the Australian Queenslanders will dominate the Australian cricketers’ response to the tragic passing of Phil Olympic team if our traditional sporting strengths Hughes, the Brisbane Barracudas give it their best and past performances are anything to go by. shot to win for Cole Miller. Most of us won’t get to Rio “in the fl esh” but thanks to the Seven Network and News Queensland, we’ll all know what happens there as Peter Cummiskey well as the Paralympics. CHIEF EXECUTIVE OFFICER 4 Sportswatch - Summer 2015-16 State support for sport – A work in progress As QSport and its member State sporting Whilst a much smaller number of other sports aren’t organisations move towards the next triennial QSport members, their coverage participation wise round of State Government support for their is very small at an estimated less than 5% of total activities, it’s timely to refl ect on the background organised sports participation for the State. to such support by successive State Governments, particularly over the past nearly two and a half With the introduction to Queensland of gambling decades. machines in 1992, substantially increased State Government fi nancial support began to fl ow to For most of the past 25 years, organised sport in organised sport, thanks to a regulated percentage Queensland has benefi ted from not only signifi cant of net revenue to the State from gaming machine community support for elite and participation operations being allocated for sport and recreation levels of sport but also increasing amounts of development. government support for the work of largely volunteer run, not for profi t State, regional and Indeed, governments at all three levels warmed to local sporting bodies in the organised, affi liation sport generally as “good for the local community, based 68 sports that are members of QSport as good for the State, good for the country”, for the major representative body for such sport in a variety of well documented reasons known this State. to most politicians and bureaucrats. 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