Queensland Rugby League chief executive officer Robert Moore and Queensland Touch general manager Gary Madders yesterday spoke about the boost their respective sports will receive from the new strategic alliance.
This announcement from the National Rugby League and Touch Football Australia is significant, Moore said.
It brings together a partnership in the state here and nationally which builds the biggest community sport in the country and provides participants, both boys and girls, an opportunity to play non-contact sport all the way through, as well as full contact sport.
Its a strategic announcement for us and for touch and obviously there will be a lot of synergies as we progress over the next few months. At this stage the two sports have signed a Memorandum of Understanding to move forward with some plans to follow around future strategy and integration of programs as you would expect."
Madders said touch football stood to benefit immensely from the new partnership.
Touch is a sport that probably in the early days was a breakaway from rugby league, so you could say that were coming back to join with probably the most popular sport in Australia, Madders said.
By combining together, weve now got over a million people currently playing the two sports in Australia and we believe it can just advance from there. Its a great opportunity for both of us.
The partnership will represent the most significant national marketing and participation drive in Australian sport, create a year-round involvement with the Greatest Game of All and help Touch Football Australia raise its profile.
Long-term benefits include:
Greater recreation participation opportunities for all abilities and ages;
Lowering participation and insurance costs;
Co-ordinated pathways programs for elite athletes;
Opportunity for strategic funding of green-space and other sporting facilities;
More opportunities to work with government in the delivery of community and education programs.
