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The 18-year-old coach who took a 100-year-old bush footy club on the brink of OBLIVION to snapping a 13-year premiership drought
- Barcaldine Sandgoannas Rugby League Club faced the prospect of folding
- Teenager Mannix Hunt bravely stepped up to coach the A-Grade men’s team
- Sandgoannas won Central West Queensland title for the first time in 13 years
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Mannix Hunt is already a legend in the eyes of many at the Barcaldine Sandgoannas rugby league club at the tender age of 18.
And with good reason, after he remarkably guided the men’s A-Grade squad to the premiership this season after the proud Queensland club was close to folding at the start of the year after 100 proud years of footy.
The teenager answered a sporting SOS before a ball was kicked, and the most unlikely of outcomes was achieved last weekend when the Sandgoannas beat the Blackall Magpies 14-10 to snare the silverware in Queensland’s Central West bush footy competition.
‘It’s hard to explain the feeling,’ Hunt told the QRL website. ‘It was overwhelming. ‘It means everything. This community is all about the footy.
‘Walking down the street, everyone congratulates you. It means the world to them.’
Mannix Hunt is a legend at the Barcaldine Sandgoannas rugby league club at the tender age of 18 after guiding the men’s A-Grade squad to premiership glory
The teenager answered a sporting SOS before a ball was kicked in pre-season, with the team on the brink of collapsing
Barcaldine is roughly 1,000 km north-west of Brisbane, and a town which loves the greatest game of all.
Hunt was encouraged to take on the role by his father Phil, and quickly garnered the support of the footy mad community.
Coaching some men in their 40s was a daunting experience, but the youngster created a club culture which the playing group quickly bought into.
‘We just stuck to the simple stuff,’ Hunt said.
‘We just needed to bond a little bit more [and] have a few beers on a Friday after training to bring the team closer as a unit.’
Young Mannix Hunt was encouraged to take on the daunting role by his father Phil, and quickly garnered the support of the footy mad community in Barcaldine
Last Saturday the Sandgoannas beat the Blackall Magpies 14-10 to snare the silverware in Queensland’s Central West bush footy competition
Fullback Ezekiel Thompson told the ABC Hunt was ‘a quiet sort’, but the team had known him since he was a ‘young fella’ and knew he had the footy IQ to succeed.
‘We knew he’d come in with a new style of football, which I think we needed,’ Thompson said.
‘He brought the team together very quickly.’
A few days out from the Grand Final, Maroons and Melbourne Storm hooker Harry Grant sent through a video of support, encouraging the Sandgoannas to seize the moment – and they did so, ending a 13-year premiership drought.