The North Queensland Toyota Cowboys will have a third partnership with a club in the Intrust Super Cup from 2015.
The Townsville and Districts Blackhawks were officially welcomed to the state-wide competition at the QRL awards function in Brisbane tonight with current Cowboys NRL assistant coach Adrian Thomson to be the club’s football operations manager.
As well as supporting the Blackhawks, the Cowboys will retain their strong links with the Northern Pride in Cairns and Mackay Cutters, with North Queensland’s NRL squad members to be allocated to all three clubs next season.
The Cowboys will also provide financial support to the Cutters, Pride and Blackhawks.
The addition of the Blackhawks to the Intrust Super Cup will aid the continued expansion of the game in the region and also give homegrown talent a reason to stay and play in Townsville.
The name Blackhawks was chosen in a 2012 “name the team” competition by Townsville resident and local fire-fighter Matthew Cocker.
Civil construction company Mendi Group will be the initial naming rights partner for the new club.
The partnership will see the Mendi logo feature on the front of Blackhawks home and away jerseys – as well as on the back of the playing shorts, prominent stadium signage and club media and marketing collateral, until at least the end of the 2017 Intrust Super Cup season.
“We’re delighted to be associated with an organisation such as Mendi and proud of this partnership,” Thomson said.
“There is an incredibly strong alignment between our two organisations’ commitments to promoting growth in the region.
“We look forward to working with Mendi for the next three years and hopefully beyond.”
Based at Brothers Leagues Club in Kirwan, the Blackhawks will start recruiting players as early as next week.
“The games will be based out of Brothers home ground but this new club will be truly a product of the entire TDRL competition, encompassing Charters Towers, Ingham and Ayr,” Thomson said.
“We have a promising group of players from the Townsville and Districts competition already undergoing our strength and conditioning program.”
