THE Centrals ASA junior rugby league club in Townsville has endured more than its fair share of hardship in recent years, with a cyclone and tornado testing the Tigers resolve.
But those tough times made the events at the club last Friday night even sweeter.
In a huge boost for the club, Maroons coach Mal Meninga and representatives from AAMI and the QRL dropped in for a training session and presented Tigers officials with $5000 worth of equipment.
For our club to win this from AAMI helps us out significantly, (as) training gear is always in short supply, Centrals president Brendan Marshall told QRL TV.
To have Mal Meninga come up to the club is such a boost for the boys morale.
The club has been through a hard couple of years and something like this just tops off a really good season for the club.
In 2011, we had Cyclone Yasi come through which blew over most of our lights. It cost the club a fair bit financially there. In March 2012, we had a tornado come through which ripped the roof off our clubhouse and basically made it unusable for nine months of last year.
We were operating from the sidelines out of car boots and vans. I cant thank our volunteers enough for the effort they put in to ensure we could continue operating and growing.
The Tigers fielded 30 junior teams this year, with nine of them going on to qualify for the finals.
Its been a good year, weve got 540 players all up, Marshall said.
(Were) the second largest club in Townsville.
