Raiders, Mitch Cronin, Terry Campese and Sami Sauiluma with the Bombala Public School’s Mistin Kidman and Brandy Crotty during the “Tackle Bullying” visits.
THERE was great excitement from local Green Machine fans last week, with the Bombala district welcoming several Canberra Raiders players to town as part of the NRL’s Community Carnival.
The team’s captain, Terry Campese was joined by Jack Wighton, Sam Matoara, Matt Alwood, Mitch Cronin and Sami Sauluma as they visited Bombala and Delegate as part of the southern NSW tour.
While school visits were a priority, the team landed in Bombala last Wednesday afternoon and spent some time on the touch footy field, with the local competition being brought forward a day to make the most of the visit.
Mingling with plenty of locals at touch, the Raiders also met up with Bombala’s Far South Coast Monaro Academy footballer, Jackson Standen, who snuck in a few pointers on competitive woodchopping amongst the footy talk.
This was followed by an informal get together at the Bombala RSL Club where a number of locals took the opportunity to meet our Raiders visitors.
The next day it was all about spreading the anti-bullying message at our schools, and the players made their way around the Delegate and Bombala Public Schools, as well as the Bombala High School to give talks and hand out a few giveaways.
The visiting Raiders even dropped in to show their support at the St Joseph’s School Swimming Carnival, which was certainly an exciting addition to the event.
All in all the visit was very warmly welcomed by the district, and NRL organisers in the region were grateful for the community’s support, particularly our local senior and junior rugby league clubs.
The Community Carnival saw the Raiders players visit five schools in Cooma and Monaro overall, adding to three days of visits to more than 4,600 children in southern NSW to help “Tackle Bullying”.
