Wests and Souths will meet on Anzac Day at Sylvan Road in a wonderful initiative after the dawn service at the Cenotaph that overlooks the ground.
The StoreLocal Hospital Cup match at 3:05pm will be a perfectly fitting follow-up after thousands of parents and schoolkids absorb the Anzac service in the early light.
The peak Queensland Reds vs Blues game at Suncorp Stadium to follow will be a final destination.
The Bulldogs deserve great credit. When Wests built their new clubhouse they engaged with the Toowong RSL Sub-Branch from the start.
The RSL had a home in the new building which was very personal for former Club President Tony Buckley.
His father, Warrant Officer Class Two Denis Buckley OAM, had served in the Korean and Vietnam Wars.
With supporters Alliance Airlines to the fore, the club game is building on the big turnout of support for the Anzac Day service.
Too many forget that the ground is actually named Toowong Memorial Park for a reason.
The park was rededicated after World War One with several memorial features to honour those who had served and sacrificed for our country.
The memorial gates erected on Sylvan Road are still there. The Toowong Soldiers’ Memorial was unveiled on the hill in 1922.
Those palm trees aren’t just a random planting. They were a ceremonial avenue of palms planted just after the war so take more care parking on junior training nights when cursing them and trying hard to avoid them.
If a smile were possible it would spread across the face of Private Norman Cassells.
It took 100 years for the fallen World War One soldier to find his home on the Centotaph.
The young gunner was just 20 when killed by a German shell in Belgium in 1917 when serving with the 11th Australian Field Artillery Brigade.
His remains were never recovered.
When his great niece Maris Cox contacted then-Wests President Graham Brown in 2017 it set in motion worthy recognition.
His name was finally engraved on the Cenotaph.
Cassells had actually played for the old Wests club in 1915 which was authenticated by an old team list produced by Ms Cox.
“It’s almost as though the one space left on the Cenotaph was waiting for him,” Ms Cox wrote in a letter to the club.
The Private Norman Cassells Medal will be awarded on Friday to the Best and Fairest Wests player on the field.
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The match itself should be top viewing with Glen Vaihu making his return in the centres for Wests after a rugby league stint with Souths Logan Magpies and a train-and-trial period with the Brisbane Broncos.
The former Melbourne Rebel will add punch in the centres with Isaac Henry.
An interesting inclusion for the Bulldogs is debutant flanker Joe Fabish. He made a recent mark with Manawatu Turbos in New Zealand.
Those with longer memories will remember him as a gun product from Marist College Emerald. He will be up against an old schoolboy representative teammate in Kohan Herbert.
For Souths, Connor Vest will add starch to the Magpies pack.
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A shout out to Wallace Charlie. The Torres Strait Islands product has earned selection in the Australian squad for the HSBC SVNS World Championship in Los Angeles on May 3-4.
Still just 18, his highlights package when crowned MVP at the Global Youth Sevens tournament in Auckland last year, is well worth rewatching.
From his Cairns home, Charlie attended St Peters Lutheran College where another Torres Strait Islander Moses Sorovi went to boarding school. It’s cool that former Red Sorovi also served as a support officer at the school during Charlie’s time.
Charlie is now part of the Western Force program.
