Open Season 2016
With Open Season kicking off this weekend, we were excited to have a quick chat to Unforgiving Bunny from Brisbane City Rollers. Bunny is the QRDL rep for her league Brisbane City Rollers and is also a founding member of QRDL.
How many teams are involved in Open Season in 2016?
This year we have 8 leagues and 12 team involved.
How does OS differ this year?
Open Season started in 2012, with 4 leagues and 7 teams. This will be the 5 year of Open Season and each year we have added more leagues and teams to the competition.
What are you most excited about for OS this year?
Every year we are working on tweaking the structure to try to achieve the most well matched and competitive season for all the teams. Last year we introduced 2 divisions and this year we have the potential to have 3. This is an exciting development as it will provide a great opportunity for teams at various levels to get the most of their season.
How has OS benefited the SEQ RD community in your eyes?
At an individual level, Open Season gives skaters with the ability to play regular competitive interleague games across a whole season. Open Season provides the infrastructure for regular interleague games that mean something more than just a single match up. Before Open Season, other than one off interleague games, leagues only played themselves in very limited seasons of 2 or 3 teams all from within their own club.
This shift is also directly contributing to the sustainability of roller derby generally. We need more people who want to join and then keep playing roller derby. There will and should always be space for the elite level of play but for the sport to last we need to also make opportunities for all levels of derby to be enjoyed. By having various competitive divisions Open Season does that.
Finally Open Season is really fun! It’s a great opportunity for the SEQ derby community to get together once a month or so and enjoy this sport we all love together.
Round one of Open Season kicks off on the 1st of March, at Ipswich Showgrounds. Don’t forget to pop in store or check out our website for all your derby supplies.
Words By Jambi Stanton