Emma McBryde
The Colts Rugby Union president is calling for young hoons who tore up the club’s Park Avenue field on Sunday to stop being a menace to society and do something with their lives.
They have been the victims of devastating vandalism for the third time after the a silver Holden Commodore trashed their beloved field on Sunday night.
Those inside the car were so intent on getting onto the field that they cut through the club’s padlocked fence, installed after previous incidents.
Frustrated club president Chay Nikora said the mass of deep divots could have far-reaching consequences on the season, their finances, and one of their most recent wins, the field’s’ first change rooms.
The land is leased from Rockhampton Regional Council and the club are waiting on tenterhooks to find out both the ramifications and the damage bill.
“We’ve still got three more home games coming up, with semis and grand finals,” Ms Nikora said.
“If our fields are damaged, there goes our home games.
“We’ve got no income coming from the canteen, we can’t sell merchandise because we are not at home.
“We might have to lease Rugby Park or something like that.”
She said it would not just be the club’s members impacted by their actions.
“We have our junior rugby, our pathways, which is our under sixes to under 10s, then we have our senior men’s and senior women’s rugby,” Ms Nikora said.
“I’m really upset and frustrated with the people who do this because they’re not just ruining for our club, but for other clubs as well, and then other people who lease our club off us for sporting events.”
She said the club’s neighbours saw the car’s lights on Sunday night and reported the incident to police, then to the Colts.
“The community I think is sick of the amount of crime that is happening,” Ms Nikora said.
“My message basically is, ‘stop being a menace to the community, take your time and be something better. You’re just wasting everybody’s effort and time’.”
Now, the club’s vital passion project, change rooms, might have to be put on hold.
The Colts, which is the only club in Rockhampton that does not have change room amenities for its players, finally succeeded in receiving a $100,000 grant to cover the facilities last year.
Ms Nikora said they were excited to have them put in about August this year.
“That’s something our club has worked hard on to get up and running, and then keeping our fields maintained really nicely,” she said.
“Taking a hit with this, it’s probably going to delay our changing rooms.
“We put the bollards up to keep people out from doing this because they got in there once and it delayed us from holding home games.”
People with information for police can contact Policelink by providing information using the online suspicious activity form 24 hours per day at police.qld.gov.au/reporting or call 131 444.
People can also report crime information anonymously via Crime Stoppers.
Call 1800 333 000 or report online at crimestoppersqld.com.au.