Premierships aplenty for Tungamah as Bears host mega reunion

By Liam Nash

Jul 6, 2023

Champion: Tungamah’s 2013 premiership winning seniors side which beat Waaia. Photo by Simon Bingham

Tungamah hosts the reunion of all reunions this Saturday.

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In the round 15 clash against Waaia a whopping seven club football and netball premierships will be honoured in what’s proposed to be a storied reminder of the Bears’ past.

Tungamah completed the footy clean sweep in 2013, winning flags across its seniors, reserves and thirds grades, while also taking out the 17-and-under netball premiership.

Additionally, the 10-year anniversary of the 2011 reserves football flag, which was interrupted by COVID-19, will also be celebrated alongside commemorating the 2003 B and C-grade netball titles.

Yet another element has been thrown into the mix with Tungamah also holding its Ladies Day function on Saturday, and club president Josh Buerckner is gearing up for a massive spectacle at Jubilee Park.

“It’s a big thing celebrating the history of the club and renewing friendships and relationships with our past players,” he said.

“We’re hoping to get about 60-odd past players from the reunion teams roughly.

“That’s really important to the club and the current playing group as well. We want to recognise what we’ve done in the past, it builds culture going forward as well.

“We want to make it a special day for those guys from those couple of years, and hopefully the footy team out on the ground can put on a good performance for us as well.”

There’s a specific reason behind why this weekend bears an extra degree of weight.

Tungamah squared off against none other than Waaia on the fateful day at Rennie in 2013, beating the Bombers 17.20 (122) 15.6 (96).

It marked the first senior flag since 2009 and kicked off a premiership three-peat for the Bears, and Buerckner is hoping the past will play in their favour as they take on a 10-0 Waaia side which has pillaged every side in its path this season.

“Obviously we played Waaia in the seniors that day in 2013, so there’s a bit of history there,” he said.

“I think all of the boys are equally looking forward to the clash and to test themselves to see where they’re at against probably the form side of the comp to date.

“I actually played in the reserves that year, we beat Shepp East, I was getting towards the twilight of my career.

“I got lucky enough to play in a reserves flag with a good bunch of blokes. It was a great day for the club for sure, a lot of fond memories.”