My mate Shaun Radnedge goes by “Zoro” and that’s how it’s spelled, don’t ask me why. He dressed up as Zorro as a kid and Zoro stuck. Most people wouldn’t know his real name outside Charleville.
I first met him when I moved from Cunnamulla in 1982. I went to Charleville State School and sat next to a bloke called Grant Bignell. “Biggy” now works for the QRL in the welfare department out of Miles. “Biggy” was mates with Zoro and few other blokes. We’re all still mates now, coming up 40 years.
Zoro was a tall skinny fella who could run fast and played rugby league. It was always myself and him in the 100 metres.
We played for the school until our early teens when I played for All Whites (St George colours) and Zoro and my other mates played for Railways (South Sydney colours). The teams hated each other; it was classic local derby stuff.
But we were always good mates, as were our parents. They were very supportive and drove us everywhere for sport.
Nobody's bunnies: Charleville Railways U/17s of 1988.
After two years in U/17s with All Whites I decided I wanted to play with my mates and joined Railways U/17s. It didn’t go down to well to start! But once I started training with my mates I knew I’d made the right decision.
It was 1988 and grade 12 for us at school. Zoro had already finished school after grade 10 to take up a butchery apprenticeship with Dunne’s Butchery in Charleville. So he was a working man while we were still toiling at the books.
Zoro loved a yarn and people always gravitated towards him. I think he learnt a lot of people skills working in the butcher’s. A lot of his swearing skills came from there too!
That year in footy we had an awesome season. Our coach Geoff Wade was one of the best I’ve ever had. He turned boys into men. He knew everyone’s personalities and gave us a kick in the arse or a pat on the back as required. Great man, great mentor.
Under him we ended up winning the U/17s grand final against my old town of Cunnamulla. It wrapped up one of the most enjoyable years I’ve had playing footy. We drank for a week and went on tour to Redcliffe where we played a game and watched the Brisbane Rugby League grand final at Lang Park.
Dressed for success: Shaun "Zoro" Radnedge and Adrian Vowles, centre left and right respectively, and friends ahead of a school dance.
I moved away to take up a cabinet-making apprenticeship on the Gold Coast, then Zoro moved to Toowoomba and won an A-grade premiership playing prop for Souths. And we kept in touch ever since.
One day in 2014 I got a phone call from Zoro who said he had an idea. He said there’s no footy for U/14s in Charleville, which was his son Jack’s age group. He said we should get an annual comp going and call it The Adrian Vowles Cup.
The tournament was a great idea but I was a bit hesitant naming it after me. I’m from the bush - no-one likes a big-noter!
But Zoro insisted and the AV Cup was born.
And was immediately cancelled! I drove all the way out from the Goldie but a couple of teams had pulled out. We only had three to begin with!
The namesake and hands-on co-host of the Adrian Vowles Cup.
But we pulled it together later in the year with teams from Charleville, Miles and Central West. Mum and dad presented the trophy to Miles, and the AV Cup was away.
From the word go Zoro and I agreed on one thing – as long it’s growing each year we don’t care if it’s one team or five, as long as it grows. The aim has always been to give kids in the bush the same opportunities as the city kids and keep the pipeline open if someone is good enough to rise to the top.
But just as important has been keeping rugby league alive in the bush. The game – and I can get emotional about it - has given us so much. Zoro and I, we feel like we owed it to our parents who drove us everywhere as kids. We had to keep the game alive.
The second year, 2015, we got five teams along which was enormous. Third year, a few more teams, including Easts in Brisbane, which was huge for us too. And this year, 2020, we had twenty-six teams and over a thousand people came to Charleville.
The first AV Cup drew one team. The most recent one had 26 teams and brought a thousand people to town in a huge boon for the local economy.
Zoro and I, we still give each other a nudge that from that one phone call and his germ of an idea, the AV Cup is an event. We’re thrilled with it.
One thing that we never thought of when we got the idea going was that bringing so many people to town would bring money too!
Last AV Cup, all motels were full as were the caravan parks. We buy our food for the canteen locally, the trophies are made locally, we use the local sign writer. We buy ice, water, soft drinks from local business.
The bakery! It does a roaring trade as do non-local businesses such as IGA (who just as an aside have knocked back our request for sponsorship on a number of occasions).
So not only is our competition helping rugby league but it’s keeping the economy in Charleville humming.
We’ve run the competition on the smell of an oily rag and have always been hands-on. In the third year a mate of mine Craig Rodgers, who grew up in Roma and Charleville, and now runs Outback Insulation in Brisbane, he loved what we were doing and became our first major sponsor.
The money the tournament received from Craig and his wife Sandy helped us grow and add things to make it better. It made a massive difference to our growing little competition.
Since then other sponsors have come aboard and been with us ever since. NRL Game Development donate the “Dream Team” jerseys which we give to players selected in the U/14 and U/16 team of the carnival. They’re a prized possession. The kids who put them on, you can see the pride. It’s such a buzz. Again – you can get emotional!
Day dream believers: Adrian Vowles (far right) with the AV Cup U/14 "Dream Team"
Since Brisbane Easts came up we’ve had Redcliffe among our regulars along with Redlands and Toowoomba Brothers. In 2020 we had our first proper girls’ competition with three teams in U/17s.
The furthest anyone’s travelled is from Mount Isa. Former Broncos and Cowboys player Willie Morganson bought his school team out, it was a massive journey for them, round trip of 2300km. Teams come from Mackay, too. That’s 1700km return.
The city kids have learnt to appreciate how far the bushies have to travel if they play away. They’ve also seen the facilities of their country cousins, the lack of money. Yet local footy numbers have gone up since the carnival kicked off.
The AV Cup run is a regular fixture the last weekend of February. It’s very popular. So many of the same people come every year and have a really good time socially.
As for Zoro, well, he’s now the Mayor.
"Zoro for Tomorrow": Murweh Shire Mayor, Shaun "Zoro" Radnedge
In the whole time the Cup’s been going I’ve seen my him learn and grow. Early on when he had to make speeches, he’ll tell you himself he wasn’t that flash. But now, he’s well at ease with public speaking. In fact he’s great at it.
In 2016 he was elected to the local council. He excelled at it and this year he was elected Mayor. And I know he’ll be great at it. And the reason I know is because he cares.
Zoro cares about his region, he cares about the people out there, the kids. He’ll talk to anyone, he loves a beer or three. And he has absolutely zero airs or graces. That said, he’s changed a little bit – he still swears like a butcher just not in public.
Bottom line is Zoro knows that if two blokes can start a footy carnival from scratch and grow it into something that brings over $200,000 into a town the size of Charleville over a weekend, then as Mayor, along with the councillors and chief executive, he’ll be able to do similar things for the region.
Safe to say I’m a bit proud of him. And I’m getting used to my name being on the trophy. Long live footy in the bush. Long live the AV Cup.
For more information about the 2021 Adrian Vowles Cup, click here.
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