FAST action by Tamborine Mountain Sports Association saw the ground used as the location for soccer State Championships this month.
Regional School Sport Officer for South Coast, Brendan Jones, said the situation was dire when grounds across the Gold Coast were deemed too wet to play the 2025 Queensland Representative School Sport 16-19 Girls’ Football State Championships.
“We’ve got about 350 students here from around Queensland,” Jones said.
“They’ve come as far as up the Cape, as wide as Mount Isa.”
“We’ve all converged on the Gold Coast to play this event and with all their accommodation, flights and everything, because of the late nature, everyone was already on their way in.”
“They were on flights, they were in cars and everyone was here.”
“So whilst everyone was coming to the Gold Coast for this event, we lost all our venues.”
“We were left with the possibility of those 350 students sitting in hotel rooms and not playing any football.”
When Mr Jones contacted TMSA the organisation was quick to jump into action.
Although there were not enough fields to hold the entire competition on the mountain, they managed to split the competition between Tamborine Mountain and Tweed Heads.
TMSA President Mick Angus is hopeful that this will lead to more high level competitions at the grounds.
“That’s what we’re doing and planning for the future,” Mr Angus said.
“So this has come a little bit early, we weren’t quite ready with the two days’ notice, but next time we’ll have a bit of notice.”
“We rallied the troops and we looked at our ovals and asked, “can we get four up here?”
While they couldn’t accommodate the four fields, Mick is certain the TMSA masterplan will ensure they can accommodate larger events.
“We love the idea of being a developing pathway and contributing to.”
“We think we’ve got something pretty unique up here.”
Mr Jones said it is not just the support of TMSA and the Eagles’ Football Club that has made the event work, but the entire community on the mountain who made them feel welcome and went out of their way to accommodate every need.
“I’ve been in town getting catering and everyone’s behind it.”
“There’s a nice vibe. It’s really good.”
“Now I know the facilities that are here and the support from the community, it’ll be on the top of my list, that’s for sure.”
