When Brad Thorn was asked what he wanted in the impressive new National Rugby Training Centre at Ballymore, he looked beyond the obvious.
This was 2021. He could have pushed for a huge gym with a roof high enough for indoor lineouts or a state-of-the-art aquatic centre with plunge pools, river pool and a sauna big enough for 15 forwards.
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Those items were already being pencilled in on the wish list and will be features of the $31.5 million project when it is officially opened on Thursday in Brisbane.
Thorn may now be the ex-coach of the Queensland Reds but his well-chosen words in that early meeting with the architect and his team are everywhere in this project.
“I want it to feel like Queensland,” Thorn had said in his perpetually raspy voice.
From the Queensland mahogany in the wood panels to splashes of maroon on the walls, Thorn has got his wish.
The new high-performance hub at Ballymore is a game-changer and most of all because it has multiple identities.
Sure, it is the modern home base that the Queensland Rugby Union has dreamt about ever since the decaying old Ballymore became a near-$1 million black hole in depreciation annually on the balance sheet.
Equally, it is the first home for the Wallaroos, Australia’s women’s team, and the Reds Super W team.
The men and women will have their own dressing rooms which is to say the women won’t have to cop the 3m-wide men’s urinal that was the embarrassing eyesore in their previous change room on match days at Ballymore.
The Buildcorp Reds Academy will also have their own dressing room so the new wave of teen talents coming into the code will have digs to be proud of.
The 77-seat auditorium will be a multi-use area where a coach might lay out the future in rugby for a schoolboys or schoolgirls group and their parents.
There is imagery of Wallaroos and Reds’ women’s players on the walls and in their dressing room. They are not merely tenants. They will have proud ownership.
It’s fair to say the equal stakes of $15 million put up by the State and Federal Governments would not have been forthcoming but for this being a joint home for women and men’s rugby.
Ballymore’s third field was once tussocky and undersized. In this redevelopment, it has been levelled, returfed, fortified with proper drainage at full-size and given floodlights. The scope for extra training value is immense.
The precinct is also valuable infrastructure as the venue for hockey at the 2032 Brisbane Olympics.
Lead contractors Buildcorp have delivered the project on time and on budget in 16 months. There is a labour of love element too with Buildcorp long time backers of the Wallaroos.
The Queensland Cricketers’ Club was this week announced as the hospitality services provider at the NRTC which will include an on-site café.
The addition of food trucks on game-days will add to the family atmosphere.
The old Murrayfield Room was once the scene of fun-filled after match functions.
The name has been retained for the new function room which is another sign that the new Ballymore still has its heart.
It is still the famous ground where the Bledisloe Cup was claimed in 1992 and where some of Queensland rugby’s most famous wins were achieved.
The new Ballymore honours both 140 years of Queensland rugby but also ushers in the dawn of an exciting new era of possibilities for the code.
