Tigers expect big crowd at Good Friday season opener

LOCAL footy and netball is back in front of crowds this year, and the Torquay Tigers are expecting thousands to turn up to their twilight season opener tomorrow night (Friday, April 2).

The Tigers will host Ocean Grove in the BFL round 1 game, with the reserves to start at 2pm and the seniors to start at 4pm.

Torquay’s netballers will also face off against Ocean Grove on Good Friday at the Spring Creek Reserve courts, with the A Grade side to start at 2.45pm.

Speaking earlier this week, Torquay president Jenny Wood admitted to feeling a little nervous about spectators returning to McCartney Oval, especially given this week’s coronavirus outbreak and snap lockdown in Brisbane.

“But we’re well prepared, we’ve done our COVIDSafe event planning, even though we didn’t have to do it to the extent they originally told us we did, just to make sure we’ve got everything organised,” Wood said.

“It’s going to be a nice day – we’re expecting around the 3,000 mark, but we can have up to 5,000.

“It’s good to kick off the year with a big game; it’s very handy after not having any games for a year.

“We’ve got a good football list, some new recruits; netball’s the same, they’re very confident; and we had a meet the juniors day on Saturday, they start on April 17.”

She said the Good Friday timeslot also had its advantages for the players.

“They get the whole weekend with their families if they’re not playing on the Saturday.”

She said the Torquay Tigers had retained many of their sponsors from 2020 and added a few more.

“We were worried, we didn’t know, you just don’t know how businesses are going. “But the sponsors get really good exposure with the scoreboard and where we’re located, because we do get the really big games.”

Wood said the hardest part of the pre-season preparations was the perennial football club issue of finding enough volunteers for the myriad number of jobs that needed to be done.

“People just don’t want to volunteer; it’s always the same people doing the work all the time,” she said.

“A lot of the life members, they certainly help out. I know people are busy, everyone’s busy, but we can’t do it without volunteers.”

For the rest of the Round 1 fixture, and all other football and netball fixtures, head to aflbarwon.com.au.