Tara Murray
The Sunshine Cowboys finally have somewhere to call home.
In one of the biggest moments for the NRL Victoria club, they will officially move into the Arthur Beachley Reserve later this month.
All games in the opening round of NRL Victoria second grade competition will be played at Sunshine in a massive boost for the Cowboys.
President Michael Hurinui said it was amazing to finally have somewhere to train and play every week.
“Pretty much for the last four or five seasons, we had been training at a ground in Sunshine, but that was under renovations so they had to move us.
“All our games were on the road. So parents with kids in two different teams were always going to different places.
“We’re really excited and overwhelmed. To the kids and families of the last five years, it’s nice to give something back.”
Hurinui said with having no club rooms it meant they couldn’t have functions or the whole club get together.
He said there were so many things they were looking forward to, now that they have a home ground.
“Everything now is a bonus, we’ve done all the groundwork,” he said.
“We’ve never been able to watch juniors up to seniors on the one day.”
The club had nine teams in recent seasons, but is hoping that number will increase with the new ground.
While the senior season gets underway on March 26, there’s still a number of weeks until the junior seasons starts.
The club will again have a senior men’s team and an under-18.
The men’s team will play in division two in the new look NRL Victoria competition.
Hurinui said changes to the competition would be a good thing. The side was sitting second when last season was called off due to the pandemic.
He said he expected them to be competitive this season.
“You’ve always needed to have two sides to have a team in first grade,” he said.
“With the change of the competition, if we win, we will move into the first division.
“We are the reigning premiers in the under-18s. The last two years a lot of those kids have gone to other clubs to play first grade.
“Hopefully we can get into first grade and these kids will stick around and others will come back.”
The Cowboys will start their season against Casey Warriors on March 26.
