The Dubbo Pacemakers Sports Club has been around for four decades and this year will again be on show at the annual NSW Aboriginal Rugby League Knockout Carnival.
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The Knockout was held at Dubbo last year but after the Redfern All Blacks took out the title the competition will take place in inner Sydney this year.
The Pacemakers club has endured some tough times in recent years but they are back and showing real signs of improvement.
We made it to round four last year, our best since coming back in, with an expectation to try and get to the semi-finals this year.
- Mick Peachey
After some years in the wilderness, the club’s rugby league side is well-placed for a tilt at this year’s Knockout.
“I believe we will start to go deep into the competition because six or seven years ago when we came back, I was on old legs with a bunch of young men around me of 16, 17, 18 and 19 years of age,” coach Mick Peachey said in a written statement.
“Today this same group (who I think of as all being my nephews) are between 22 and 26 years of age and playing first grade in groups 9, 10 and 11, still with a sprinkling of youth and older heads in there as well.
“We made it to round four last year, our best since coming back in, with an expectation to try and get to the semi-finals this year.
“Pacemakers have won this competition in the past and for me it would be a great achievement as well as a great feeling of pride to do it again with this bunch of young men, who have continued to stick with their mates and relatives through thick and thin and represent Dubbo with pride.”
After starting as a club designed to give young Aboriginal women a chance to play soccer, the Pacemakers then started playing basketball before the decision was made to enter a team in the state’s largest rugby league knockout.
Some of Group 11’s finest players have featured for the Pacemakers and some of Dubbo’s most well known sporting names have featured for the Pacemakers.
The club failed to exist for a couple of years but a hard-working committee brought it back and now the next generation is now on show for the Pacemakers, with the Hill, Fuller, Chapman, O’Neil, Taylor, Combridge, Dwyer, Merritt, Smith, Wilson and Peachey names all featuring.
Pacemakers success would see the Knockout return to Dubbo and the economic benefits received last year would occur again. Peachey stated last year the four-day event at Dubbo brought in millions of dollars, not hundreds of thousands, but millions to the city and region, to the point where shops were sold out of stock.
The hunt for sponsorship for the team this year is ongoing, with the team needing to pay for uniforms, travel and accommodation at Leichardt for the Knockout, which will be held over the October long weekend. Anyone interested in assisting the club can contact Mick Peachey on 0468970788 or by emailing pacemakerssportsclub1975@outlook.com.