March 4, 2014
The return of the Kingaroy Red Ants into the rugby league competition, the retirement of a couple of players and others moving out of the area have been blamed for the South Burnett Thrashers having to withdraw from the Darling Downs rugby union competition this year.
Recently elected club president Jamie Shirlaw said he had to make the hard decision last week to notify Darling Downs that the club would not be fielding a team this year.
“Realistically we need to have between 20 and 25 players signed up at this time of the year to ensure that we can put a team on the field,” Jamie said.
“We probably only had about eight so we had to make the call.”
Jamie said the goal now was to have a team up and running for next year or the year after.
“Darling Downs wants to keep us in the competition. They would like us to be in the B Grade competition if we can field a team,” he said.
“We just have to get the numbers.”
The disappointing decision follows the Thrashers’ most successful season ever in the competition in 2013, finishing sixth on the ladder after at one stage threatening to make it into the semi-finals.
