Sport
20 October, 2022
Maryborough Pumas, local businesses support flood-stricken Newbridge Football Netball Club
The community spirit of Maryborough was on show recently when local organisations including the Marybor-ough Pumas AFL Masters team helped clean up the clubrooms of the Newbridge Football Netball Club, which were heavily damaged in the devastating...
The community spirit of Maryborough was on show recently when local organisations including the Maryborough Pumas AFL Masters team helped clean up the clubrooms of the Newbridge Football Netball Club, which were heavily damaged in the devastating floods.
The Pumas are regulars at Newbridge, who compete in the Loddon Valley Football Netball League, and train at the ground and enjoy meals at the Newbridge Hotel when they get a chance.
They were part of a bevy of Maryborough locals who helped out, with the club sending their thanks to Member for Ripon Louise Staley, as well as Labor candidate for Ripon Martha Haylett for helping out, while Maryborough companies Sludgebusters and The Little Produce Box were also mentioned on social media by the club.
Reflecting on the clean-up, the Pumas’ Travis Cain said that an amazing community attitude was key to getting the numbers to help clean up Newbridge’s clubrooms.
“We had a few blokes that got the effort going on our messenger page, asking for any volunteers to go across and help. It was a good thing to do, but also pretty confronting, when you get over there and see the damage that was done. I think there was about eight of us that went over,” he said.
“My seven-year-old son also went over and helped out. I had to warn him that there might be some dead animals and whether it would be upsetting for us. He helped out and he was a little champion, too.”
Cain said the damage that was sustained to the clubrooms and surrounds was “shattering” for the club and the area.
“It was pretty rough. I’m not an emotional sort of person, but when I drove in with the big Kanga loader over to help move concrete and logs, I was just sitting there thinking it was pretty real,” he said.
“When we got there, the tennis court’s fences were all pushed over, there was a car on the football oval — someone had tried to do the wrong thing and driven through flood waters, and their car got washed away. The coaches box was ripped out of the ground, stumps and debris were all over the front of the rooms, and it washed away all their carpark. The mud inside the building was pretty ordinary as well.
“Everything was damaged, the floods ripped the plaster out of the rooms as well. It’s going to be a fair rebuild coming up.
“Like any football club, the clubrooms is your home. To see damage like that is shattering.”
Cain revealed that there were plans in place for the Pumas to host a game at Newbridge next season, something that he is still hopeful of depending on whether the rooms can be fixed in time next year.
“We were going to try and schedule a game out that way towards next season. We will have to see how that plays out now,” he said.
In time, the Pumas will look to brainstorm ideas to provide further help to Newbridge, according to Cain.
“There hasn’t been any ideas yet, but when we get back to training, we will probably brainstorm ways we can help raise some money and help out Newbridge. I know insurances will cover some of it, but it wouldn’t have covered all of it as well, I would have thought,” he said.
“Pre-season training will have to start reasonably soon, they will need to buy fridges and stock for fridges that have probably been washed away too.”
Most importantly for Cain, it was a way for the team to give back in a way that the Pumas have become renowned for with their community spirit.
“We weren’t doing it for a pat on the back, we wanted to do it because we wanted to help people in an area that we love being at,” he said.