Outback Town Revives Rugby Team After 24-Year Break

When Dylan Andrews suggested reviving the town's rugby team over Friday afternoon beers, he didn't expect the entire community to say yes.

The Thargomindah Bulls hadn't played in 24 years. The field sat empty in this remote Queensland town of just a few hundred people, 935 kilometers from Brisbane. But Andrews, fresh from Toowoomba, noticed something missing and decided to do something about it.

He printed a sheet and walked around town collecting names. Within days, 30 people had signed up: tradies, cattle station workers, players from the original 1990s team, and even a former NRL player named Mack Mason.

The timing seemed impossible. Just one year earlier, devastating floods had torn through Thargomindah, leaving the oval battered and the community reeling. Training started in January on the damaged field anyway.

Then came the coach. Liam Stitt, 63, had moved to town from Brisbane to help with flood cleanup after hearing the call on ABC radio. When he learned about the team revival, he'd just been diagnosed with a cancerous kidney tumor and felt lost.

Players caught him in a moment of distress and invited him to the first club meeting. Half an hour later, he volunteered to coach. He traveled back to Brisbane in January for surgery, then returned to Thargomindah by February to honor his commitment.

The Bulls lost their first game against the Charleville Comets last weekend, but nobody seemed to care. Forty percent of Thargomindah's population showed up to watch, cheering from the sidelines.

The Ripple Effect

The excitement spread beyond Thargomindah. Neighboring towns Cunnamulla and Charleville caught the competitive spirit and formed their own teams, reviving an entire regional competition that had been dead for years.

Club president Tamie Warner, who remembered watching the Bulls in the 1990s, said the team filled a crucial gap. For people who didn't ride motorbikes or horses, there simply wasn't much to do in town.

Now the community holds weekly fitness sessions and meat tray raffles at the pub. Station workers drive 300 kilometers just to play. Stitt insisted from the start that this be a community team, not just 20 men playing football.

Queensland Rugby League's outback coordinator Tim Wood said it's rare for an entire competition to come back like this. The first revived season runs just four rounds, but organizers hope to expand next year.

Stitt's cancer is under control now, and he feels good again coaching a team that gave him purpose when he needed it most.