Sport
22 November, 2025
Junior Reef Raiders kick off
THE Reef Raiders have seen major growth through the club in the last 12 months, with the addition of a reserves team to complement their A-grade side, but now during the seniors’ off-season they’ve managed to put together a number of junior sides for the 2025/26 junior FNQ rugby season.
The Raiders have fielded four junior sides this season, starting with an under-9s side for the youngest future stars of the region, but have also entered teams into the under-11s, 13s and 15s competitions.
While all age groups are merged with other clubs to be able to field a side, there’s a very healthy number of young Port Douglas athletes spread across the teams with around 40 players registered through the Raiders.
While the FNQ rugby juniors’ competition is much smaller than the seniors one, it’s still extremely competitive.
All games for the season have been played at Jones Park in Cairns, but with the growth of the competition in each age group looking certain, it’s hopeful that the Raiders will be able to enter independent teams and be able to host games at their home ground.
The competition has been built through the summer months and the off-seasons of the other popular sports to try gain player interest and reduce any clash opportunities.
While the Raiders are extremely happy with the 40 junior players, they are still extremely optimistic that in future seasons that number will continue to grow and that they can have a very healthy junior program which leads into their seniors.
Unfortunately, the junior sides have been outclassed to date by the structure of the Cairns sides but the improvement of both the players individually and the team as a whole has been monstrous.
Each side has been able to shorten down the margins each week and are looking very hopeful to secure their first wins of the season before the Christmas holidays break.
