By Jessica McGrath
The highly-anticipated Dinner With The Captains is determined to go ahead this year.
South Burnett Relay For Life Patron Carl Rackemann has been a driving force behind the dinner, which is set for Saturday, 29 July.
After three years of cancelled dinners due to the covid-19 pandemic, Rackemann is keen to see this year’s go-ahead.
He announced the 2023 dinner’s three guest captains at the Relay For Life Breakfast launch held earlier this month on 4 May.
The first captain will be Brisbane Broncos and Queensland NRL legend Allan ‘Alfie’ Langer.
He captained the Australian Kangaroos for two tests, played 240 games with the Brisbane Broncos, 34 State of Origins for Queensland, 24 tests for Australia.
Also lined up for the dinner fundraiser is Australian Beach Volleyball ‘captain’ Natalie Cook OAM.
The five-time Olympian, taking home both gold and bronze medals, is a big fan of the South Burnett Dinner with the Captains event.
Many years ago Rackemann asked Cook if she could be a Dinner with the Captains guest speaker.
However, as volleyball is a two-person sport with Cook and her teammate Kerri Potthouse, the Australian beach volleyball team did not have official captains.
Cook told Rackemann ‘leave it with me’.
“She gets onto Volleyball Australia and gets Volleyball Australia to write a letter recognising the fact that Natalie Cook was captain of the team for the sole purpose that she could legitimately be a guest at our dinner,” he said.
Finally, at the Dinner will be former Australian women’s cricket captain Jodie Purves (née Fields).
Purves was the first Queensland woman to captain Australia in 2009, scored 100 in her first test as captain and later led Australia to twin World Cup wins.
The talented wicket keeper from Toowoomba was inducted into the Women’s Cricket Hall of Fame in 2020.
In February 2023, the Jodie Purves Trophy was announced as a new Queensland Cricket award to recognise the best Queensland female performer across all formats.
Not a stranger to playing sport on the national scale, Relay Patron Carl Rackemann will MC the event and chat with each of the captains about sport and life.
Rackemann himself is a celebrated fast bowler who played cricket for both Queensland and Australia.
The Dinner with the Captains committee have decided to cap tickets for the three-course dinner at 270 seats, so fans will have to get in quick for tickets. (Book online here: bit.ly/3VDRAQl )
The Dinner with the Captains is one of many fundraising events held across the South Burnett for Cancer Council in the lead-up to the main South Burnett Relay For Life day on Saturday, 7 October.
Registrations for Relay for Life teams are now open, with early bird registration closing on 14 July. Search ‘South Burnett/ Kingaroy’ on www.relayforlife.org.au/ to register.