In a rugby league mad town like Warwick getting an AFL Club up and running was always going to be a challenge.
But facing and overcoming adversity is what the Warwick Redbacks do best.
Since 2007, the Redbacks have gone from fielding a senior and three junior teams to fielding teams in all junior age groups from Under 8 to Under 16.
Next year the club hopes to further bolster playing numbers with the introduction of a women’s team.
Up until this season the Redbacks have been without a home of their own, having to share the local cricket club’s facilities.
The club had been in the process of developing a new home ground when it was decimated by two floods in the space of a couple of weeks in December 2010 and January 2011.
It took 12 months and countless man hours, not to mention considerable financial outlay, to relay turf in time for the 2012 season.
On March 31st2012 Roddies Oval was officially opened and the Redbacks played a home game on a ground that was truly their own.
Never mind that the club operated all year out of a tent city that was set up by a band of volunteers in the pre- dawn hours and sub-zero temperatures.
It was such an achievement for the club to get to this point that people were willing to overlook the makeshift change-rooms, outdoor canteen and port-a-loos.
Now the Redbacks are embarking on the next, and most exciting, stage of their journey to build the club from the ground up; the actual construction of a club house.
The first sod of earth has been turned and the Redbacks are hopeful the club house will be completed in time for the first bounce of the 2013 season
