Do Sunnybank still have a strong juniors program? During the 2000s their teams regularly featured in the finals across most Division 1 age groups and had a number of players who kicked on to become pros.
As a player there was a genuine sense you were going to drive out there and get beaten up (legally on the field) pretty much from u13s onwards.
I played there during the 90s and 00s, I’d say this was peak Sunnybank and I remember announcements been made during players days about been the largest juniors club in QLD.
It went from a pretty unsuccessful club to one which was competing at the top and winning across the grades, I won half a dozen premierships in my time there. We had a massive influx of players from other clubs like Logan and South’s over this period.
There was also a cultural shift with the added success evolving from the legacy of those who built the club through the 90s, I think Sunnybank struggled with the changing demographic of its catchment; pokies in the club house and the cultural shift with the increasing % polynesian players. I think it lost its rugby community feel when the club/pokie renovations occurred, it became a bit sterile and enough wasn’t done to embrace the polynesian influence and build on that culture. I haven’t been there in over a decade now, most of my era shifted to South’s.
On field success might be a reflection of that, or a causation. Hard to say.
