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For keen rugby league player Owen Whyman, times are tough enough in the Darling River town of Wilcannia without losing the game he looks forward to each week.
Key points:
- The ORL had hosted two teams in each of Broken Hill, Wilcannia and Menindee in past years, but this year looked to lose four of them
- Rugby league is seen as a critical outlet and a way of managing personal problems in the towns
- Some players have enrolled in an Albury competition, an exhausting and expensive 20-hour round trip
"They took the water away, the river, and … the last thing we need is no football around," Mr Whyman said.
The local Outback Rugby League (ORL) has struggled to find enough teams for a competition this year.
In past years, there have been two teams each in Broken Hill, Wilcannia and Menindee, but as the season loomed this year it looked as if four clubs would fail to field a team.
The first to go were the two Broken Hill teams, the Saints and United.
"We heard early on in the season that there wasn't going to be rugby league due to the forfeits of the two Broken Hill teams, and that's why other boys went to play in different competitions because they thought it wasn't going to be worth playing," Mr Whyman said.
"We like to play in a real competition, not just for fun."
That meant that even rugby league-mad Wilcannia struggled to get up one team, let alone its usual two.
Mr Whyman played in a new combined Wilcannia side at the weekend in one of two games organised by the Country Rugby League as a last ditch effort to whip up registrations and kick-start a 2019 competition.
It was intended to be a seven-a-side game between the Wilcannia Wiimpatjas and the Menindee Yabbies, but ultimately there were enough players for the full 13 at both ends.
"It was a good show, not only for the football but for the people of Wilcannia," Mr Whyman said.
Rugby league a social lifeline
The game is a pillar of life in Wilcannia and Menindee.
For most players and spectators, it is a welcome break from the rest of the week and a celebration that attracts all parts of the community.
For some, it is a critical outlet and a way of managing personal problems.
Wiimpatjas coach Cyril Hunter said the prospect of Wilcannia without rugby league would be a "disaster".
"If there's no rugby league out here, they'll just go to doing the wrong thing," he said.
"It is a very important outlet, so I'm very pleased to see the boys here doing the football instead of home and doing the drinking."
Owen Whyman said the game also provided an incentive to keep out of trouble.
"We're going through this domestic violence program where if you mess up, you cannot play football," he said.
"Even the statistics show that when football season's on the crime rate drops, the violence drops, and it's a very important thing to our kids and our women."
Numbers down but passion remains
The reverence that locals have for the game is obvious from kick-off.
A cacophony of car horns greets every try scored by Wilcannia, and each play is punctured by coach Cyril Hunter's frantically-shouted instructions.
Even men and women who have been disallowed from entering the oval watch keenly from the other side of the fence.
"We say it's a way of life for the Menindee Yabbies," said Yabbies committee member Lisa Kelly.
"It brings people together. It brings family groups and communities together (and) gives the boys something to do.
"And the skills of rugby league and what they learn playing a team sport … can carry on to the rest of their life."
Because of the success of the two trial games, the Country Rugby League is planning a reduced ORL season with as few as three teams — two in Menindee, and one in Wilcannia.
"Certainly we're optimistic about more games," far west competition support officer Dallas Reeves said.
"Now we just need to get that third team, and if we have that third team we can look at providing a structured competition."
He said he would negotiate with the clubs this week about how that might work.
"With three teams we'll be looking at round robins and things like that to try and give every team two games on a day even if they're shortened halves. There's basically different scenarios that we'll put to the clubs now," Mr Reeves said.
Owen Whyman and three teammates have enrolled in the competition at Albury, an exhausting and expensive 20-hour round trip.
But he is expecting the ORL to be back to full strength next season if momentum is not lost this year.
"Anyone can tell you that we're born with a football in our hand," he said.
Topics: sport, indigenous-aboriginal-and-torres-strait-islander, regional-development, regional, rugby-league, wilcannia-2836, broken-hill-2880, menindee-2879