Home Nationals a tantalising prospect for Packer
With an abundance of events staged Australia’s east, you will often find Right at Home Jackaroo Cody Packer racking up frequent flyer points as he jets from Perth and back for individual, state and international duties.
For the 2023 Nationals however, that won’t be the case.
The 31-year-old will be able to enjoy his own surroundings as the rest of the Australian bowling fraternity descends on the nation’s western capital with more than 30 gold medals on offer.
Speaking on Bowls Australia’s ‘Without Bias’ program, Packer says he is certainly looking forward to having a more boisterous crowd on the bank than what he would normally receive in the east, before adding that avoiding a taxing travel day could be highly beneficial.
“I’m pretty buzzed, it’s pretty exciting to be able to play in front of a few more WA fans, we usually get a pretty good turnout over east but we’ll have a few more this time around,” he said.
“I’m not sure about having an extra edge but it certainly helps, I know that the majority of the time that we go east it can be a seven or eight hour travel day for us leaving early in the morning.
“For me personally, it’s eight minutes down the road so it’s a pretty significant time saver.”
In terms of staging the event, the 43-time international representative believes that The Nationals will assist in growing the profile of the sport in Western Australia, while recognising the mountain of work the three host clubs have done.
“I think it’s huge, really important, we’re a real passionate breed of bowler over here with that ‘west against the rest’ mentality,” he said.
“Just to bring it all back to Perth and acknowledge all of the clubs that are doing so well over here.”
Packer will be in action across the Australian Sides Championships and the men’s singles discipline at the Australian Championships, both of which will take place at Joondalup Bowling Club.
The Osborne Park product will skipper his rink in the middle weekend with Jack East, David Downey and Anthony Williams as his front three.
Western Australia has hoisted the coveted Alley Shield on nine occasions, but has been starved since the state’s last triumph in 1999 when Packer was just seven years of age.
If he were to clinch the accolade, he would label it as one of the proudest moments of his career.
“Obviously there are huge international goals but from a team perspective and state pride being a Western Australian, winning the Australian Sides Championships would be my ultimate goal,” Packer said.
“It has eluded us since 1999 and we’ve always had good squads but it would be huge for us as a smaller state.
“When South Australia won it in 2017, I know how much it meant to them so to be able to emulate that would be unreal.”
Catch up on Without Bias via our Youtube channel.
The 2023 Nationals will run from October 6-20, 2023, with live streaming to take place on Bowls Australia’s Facebook and YouTube channels.
The 2023 Nationals in Perth, Western Australia is proudly supported by Tourism Western Australia, City of Joondalup, and the State government through the Department of Local Government, Sport and Cultural Industries and Lotterywest in Western Australia. Sport and recreation creates vibrant, inclusive and connected WA communities.
