CLANCY OVERELL | Editor | CONTACT
With two teams that boast nationwide grassroots recruiting programs playing in the NRL grand final today, rural newspapers around the country are scrambling to document every vague association their town may have had with any of the players.
Small town sports journalists have been flat out crafting up autobiographies for the debutants of both teams – who now ‘come from’ towns they’ve never really lived in.
In Queensland, one notable naturalisation can be seen in the non-stop stream of articles written by the reporters working in an array of different towns, who have claimed Penrith interchange halfback Brad Schneider as a born and bred local boy.
Schneider was born in Adelaide South Australia, for some reason, before his family moved to ‘North Queensland’ – which means he played his junior footy in Townsville. He then debuted with the Canberra Raiders, which is a very vaguely Queensland thing to do.
But if you’ve been in any newsagent in the Western Queensland Channel Country this week, you’ll find he’s actually from a completely different part of rural Australia altogether.
That’s according to The Bedourie Bugle, the only other newspaper in the Diamantina Shire that comes close to competing with The Betoota Advocate.
“Locals recall seeing Brad, Or Braddles as we called him, getting around town as a youngster” writes Bedourie sports reporter, Ryan Costello, who is actually referring to the 1 or 2 months Schneider spent in town when he was dating a local girl, before eventually getting a start in the NRL.
“He would always hang out at the footy club and had dreams of playing in the NRL” the article continues, in a heavily padded out article that is being recreated in hundreds of towns across Australia today.
Other notable towns that have claimed NRL players this weekend include:
Queensland’s Lockyer Valley claiming Melbourne captain Ryan Papenhuyzen, because his European surname was once common amongst the town’s pioneering Dutch families.
Wyong (NSW) claiming Penrith reserve Daine Laurie because they mistakenly confused him for his uncle of the same name, who played a season for their local side in 2013
Longreach (QLD) claiming Melbourne forward Christian Welch because he drove through there once on his way to the Winton Film Festival with his old man.
