Not only were there some impressive performances on the track at Ladbrokes Park Lismore on Tuesday night, but there was plenty of action off the track with the Sportsday boys broadcasting live and also delivering their charity spoils from 2019.
The popular Crocmedia, Sporstday team of former rugby league stars and premiership winners, Gary Belcher and Scott Sattler, headed to Lismore to do their evening sports’ show live. The show has a tremendously large reach through the Crocmedia network and is heard all around regional NSW and in Sydney through 2SM.
During the last 16 weeks of the NRL season, the boys had two weekly greyhound spots on the their show, where they spoke with DAVE Carlson about all the weekly greyhound news, and each week placed bets, with the winnings going to their nominated charities.
As a result of those bets, on Tuesday night, Gary and Scott also presented cheques to the Australian Men’s Shed charity, and Greyhounds as Pets, totalling over $11,000, their winnings for the season.
“It’s been a great evening to have the radio show broadcast directly from the track and then to actually promote both charities that they raised money for - the Men’s Shed and Greyhounds as Pets - has been absolutely brilliant,” said General Manager of Greyhounds As Pets NSW, Dr Alicia Fuller.
“It’s been a really important night. It’s great what Sportsday and Crocmedia have done, and we want to thank them for a what a great job they did to raise the awareness of the Greyhounds As Pets program throughout their listening area, and then also coming to the track in the regional areas.
“The community around us tonight get to hear and see what’s going on (with GAP NSW) and that’s a great way of raising the profile as well.”
The boys and the Crocmedia team confirmed they will be back on board in 2020, next year hoping to add even more to their charities, and continue to bring awareness around those respective charities as well.
“It’s been outstanding and we have absolutely loved it,” Sattler said of the segments. “Not only was it a great relationship between ourselves and GRNSW but we have got to know a lot of the staff and formed good relationships with guys like (GRNSW CEO) Tony Mestrov - who I played against in the NRL and Badge (Belcher) would have played against as well towards the end of his career.
“To see the great work that he and his team are doing is really refreshing and having Disco DAVE (Carlson) on each and every week, has been a bit of a highlight as well. He’s been a great asset, and the work that GRNSW has done after the negative feedback some years ago has been outstanding.
“And to be able to raise money for any not for profit organisation is always a priority, and that was no different for us this year.”
On the track Queenslander Tony Brett dominated the Ladbrokes Lismore Maiden heats, with three heat winners including the fastest, Hara’s Clyde (23.84s), as well as Skilled (24.12s) and Duplicated (24.29s).
“You are always happy to just get one but to get three is a bonus,” Brett said. “They are nice dogs and we did the hard work and brought them down here, and trialled them, so it’s nice to get the results.
“He’s (Hara’s Clyde) a super little dog. I think we will hear a lot more about him. He’s going to be a really nice dog. He just keeps doing things right and he’s just progressing nicely.”
Other heat winners were Velocity Summit (24.09s), Magnum Max (24.36s) and Spookie Magic 24.73s).
