Ben Ikin, QRL CEO – Regional Fan Days (31 March)

Welcome back to Rural Queensland today. It is the 31st of March, a Tuesday morning across Rural and Regional Queensland

and some huge announcements yesterday made by the QRL. Their fan days are going to the regions.

Well, the step is through all of this and plenty going on in the Rugby League landscape. Ben Ike and the CEO of Queensland Rugby League joins us this morning.

Good morning and thanks so much for being with us.

My pleasure Delbo, great to be here at Queenslander.

Yeah, well, made very exciting. We were talking about it yesterday. The men's and women's fan days are going to the regions now.

It's been last year, I think, to Wumba for the men and I think King Arroy for the ladies. This year you're going Harvey Bay for the ladies and then to Rock Hampton for the men's.

That's right, yeah. So on the 9th of May, the Harvey Norman Marone. Our women's team will roll into the Harvey Bay Seagulls and spend a whole lot of time there mixing with fans and volunteers and young players on the basis that both coaches Nathan Frost and Billy Slater, but in this instance, our new Women's Marone's coach Nathan Frost is as keen to make sure that the female side.

It gets connected to the people that they're playing for because at the end of the day, over this long history of state of origin and two way back in 1980, that's been our competitive advantages.

We've played for something bigger than ourselves. It's important to get the team back into regional points and to understand what those people look like.

And it's so important. Rock Hampton has been a melting pot and it's very special that Harry Grant and at the moment, Kim Munster, both Rock Hampton players, you know, born and bred there.

And that's where you're taking it to back to their hometown.

Yeah, that's right. Well, Harry Grant is officially the best player in the world at the moment.

So little old town like Rock Hampton, your pun is produced someone like Kim and Cameron Munster is our Marone captain.

So he speaks for himself. And yes, that's what Queensland's capable of doing.

I mean, that's why we keep fighting for our statewide competition.

The best place to come up here and do premiership is because those pathways, they are based in regional Queensland.

We are so decentralized, we need opportunities for young boys and girls to go after their dreams, not just players, but coaches and match officials.

And so when the biggest thing we do comes around in the middle of the year, it's important that regional Queensland, who produce so much of that talent, gets to touch and feel their mighty marones, which is effectively why we're going to Harvey Bay and to Rock Hampton.

And that's the big thing.

Like, how do you guys choose, I mean, you go across the state, you've been everywhere, but how is it chosen where you're going?

But there's no set formula other than we also appreciate that.

And I know this is a rural radio show job.

There's a whole chunk of Queenslanders who come from the metro areas.

So we try to strike a balance between giving our fans in the metro areas, South East Queensland, an opportunity to spend some time with the marones.

You know, we were in Gimpy last year with the men's to one with the year before.

We're going further out. We've been to Cannes. The girls went to King of Roy.

But we do know there's more access to our men's and women's marones than just through the camp, right?

Because the women have traditionally been based on the Gold Coast. They're moving to the Sunshine Coast this year.

And the men are based on the Sunshine Coast this year.

So when you're on the Sunshine Coast of the Gold Coast running, you can't spend to come and watch.

So inside of the press somewhere, these fan days, we have to have a good mix. And predominantly, we look to regional Queensland for the fan days,

knowing that fans of the marones in the metro areas can actually come and see the boys or the girls train while they're in camp.

Yeah, and that's that's the big thing.

You get to bring on. I know people who have traveled to go and watch them. And it's something special watching the Queensland marones.

Obviously, you know, prepare for what will be an awesome series game one in Sydney, game two in Melbourne, and then the game three back in Brisbane.

Like a lot of new cycle doing the rounds, Billy Slater off contract at the end of this year.

And obviously, you'll look to re-sign him. When do those kind of discussions happen?

Or is it wait to the obviously he's not going anywhere while he's had so much success? How does that work out?

And when do you guys start negotiating that?

Well, we've already had a conversation. I think that's even been reported.

Billy's just keen to get his way through the series. He'll come to me when he's ready.

We're really comfortable that he's doing an exceptional job loading the men's program. I think everybody would agree.

Three series victories in four totalist head coach. And he's approached the whole thing is sort of in exactly the same form as how he used to approach his time as a player.

So it lives by that mantra performance loss preparation. I really enjoyed watching him fight straight as a coach. He's done it so well.

And once the series gets underway, if at any time he wants to reach out start that conversation. He's got an agent of course.

But my sense is that Billy just wants to get this series one and done. And then he'll think and talk about 2027 and beyond.

So some really good stories coming out with the Queensland Cup underway and regional rugby league.

But I know the Clydesdale's are yet to have a win. But gee whiz there's some improvement there and some green shoots up 18-4 against the sunny coast at half time.

They're just getting better and better and it's really providing a pathway.

We've seen some players emerge already into this competition through the Clydesdale's and we're only four rounds in that we've never heard of who are just providing entertainment.

You just feel that things are moving in the right direction there very much so sponsorships up.

Participation in that region and obviously supporting base of the two on the Clydesdale's and you can just know that the walkers are going to get success.

No that's right. There are a whole lot of people that did a whole lot of good work before the current CEO and share and head coaches came along and we respect the efforts made by those that got the Clydesdale back into the competition.

And the thing has evolved again. We've got some fresh faces. We've got new energy and they're building on the foundations that were laid before you know this current crop arrived.

And you're right at walkers. I love their approach for life and rugby league specifically as it relates to coaching.

They'll go looking for players where others won't and the style that they play with we know that won them a national championship way back in 2015.

A lot of those tactics have found their way into the NRL. They've just become common practice. They are innovated and they bring a really good energy to the training environment which over time will spill into the performance week to week.

So the Clydesdale's on field on the up and you've really called it out under the new CEO of the Alex Veganis is doing a great job.

Getting the community engaged off the back of more positive center of sentiment around the 40 teams that will feel on field heading in the right direction because that region as you know Dolbo.

It deserves a really strong Western Clydesdale.

If you need a second tier rugby league academy I'll say again the young boys and girls who have NRL and NRL W dreams don't have to lead the region to go after those dreams.

It's so true. Ikey well done on Rockamp then and Harvey Bay being the destinations for the fan days for the men's and women's game for the Queensland Marones.

Harvey Norman, Queensland Marones are going to be there. We'll keep you updated and abreast of all that. Thanks so much for being with us.

Pleasure to have you. Good on you. We're going to take a break. That's been Icon the CEO of the Queensland Rugby League. This is where we're all Queensland today.