Barrack Heights greyhound trainer Wayne Crouch’s life has been plagued with uncertainty for much of the past 12 months.
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Friday marks one year since then NSW Premier Mike Baird delivered the news his government would ban greyhound racing.
The announcement, made via Facebook, was a knockout blow for Illawarra trainers like Mr Crouch, a move that turned their livelihoods upside down
The decision would later be overturned by Mr Baird in a remarkable backflip, but a sense of unease remains.
Some in the industry predict a shortage of dogs could see some clubs struggle to fill race cards by early next year.
“With all the troubles we had, people stopped breeding, so I think there’s going to be a shortage of dogs,” Mr Crouch said.
Most of the greyhounds in Australia are bred in NSW and Darren Hull, the operations manager at the Bulli Greyhounds, agreed numbers would decrease “somewhere along the line”.
Mr Hull said there had been a 50 per cent drop in greyhound breeding since before Mr Baird’s first announcement.
A greyhound starts racing when it’s about 18 months old, he said, meaning the downturn in breeding numbers would likely come into play early next year.
Mr Hull described the past 12 months – from Mr Baird’s July 7, 2016 ban announcement to his ban backflip on October 11 and beyond – as “a bit of a rollercoaster ride”.
The ride is yet to come to a halt, but moved forward last week with the appointment of a refreshed Greyhound Racing NSW board.
As the weeks go by we’re sort of getting more confident.
- Barrack Heights greyhound trainer Wayne Crouch
In what Mr Hull described as good news for the industry, another former NSW Premier, Morris Iemma, has been appointed as chairman of the five-member board.
Mr Iemma oversaw the panel whose recommendations helped shape new laws to reform the industry.
The board also has members with greyhound experience.
“There’s a really good mix,” Mr Hull said, adding past boards were “academically appointed”.
“They might have [had] all these letters behind their names, but they wouldn’t know one end of a greyhound from the other.”
For Mr Crouch, things were also looking up. “As the weeks go by we’re sort of getting more confident,” he said.
Mr Hull added: “It’s time not to look back”.
“We all know what happened in the last 12 months, we know what was happening by a small minority before,” he said.
“There’s got to be a zero-tolerance.”
Andrew Pearson
Andrew grew up in the western Riverina town of Hay and has strong ties to the region. He is a former DA journo who has a passion for breaking news and has covered everything from council and politics to crime and court.
Andrew grew up in the western Riverina town of Hay and has strong ties to the region. He is a former DA journo who has a passion for breaking news and has covered everything from council and politics to crime and court.
