Keebra Oz's best schoolboy outfit

Travis Meyn | 08:28am September 19, 2013


THE Gold Coast is home to the best schoolboys rugby league team in the country after Keebra Park High took out yesterday's GIO Schoolboy Cup with an emphatic victory in Sydney.

Keebra thrashed highly-rated Sydney private school Patrician Brothers Blacktown 28-4 in the national grand final in Kogarah to claim their second schoolboys title.

The Southport students last took home the crown of schoolboys kings in 2009 and coach Greg Lenton said this special team deserved their success.

"We've never come out of a game so physically damaged before. We've got broken noses, broken teeth, cracked sternums, scratched eyes," he said.

"We're damaged but we played footy. That was the difference.

"People have asked me why this is a good team and I say it's because they're good footballers who play great when the pressure is on.

"You get those rare groups together."

The team was littered with NRL-bound players with 10 of the 17 set to join the Tigers and Titans next year.

Star centre Marion Seve, an Australian schoolboys representative who overcame a cancer battle last year, was crowned the Peter Sterling Medallist as the competition's player of the year while five-eighth Te'maire Martin was named man-of-the-match. It capped off an outstanding year for the school, which swept all Broncos Challenge competitions from under-13 to under-18 in a dominant season.

Many of the team's players are New Zealand products, but 10 of them have been in the school's rugby league program since Year 8.

Lenton said he knew his team had the potential to go all the way because of their strong work ethic.

"This team is very similar to 2009 in the fact you could count on one hand the people who missed training sessions during the whole year," he said.

"We have about 10 sessions a week, some are 5am in the gym during cold winters and when no one's missing that's when you start to think you might have something special.

"All the teams that run out for Keebra are full of great kids who do a hell of a lot of work, but at the end of the day you need those couple of special footballers in your team.

"People don't like me saying it but coaches are overrated. The key is having a good group of kids together, keeping them disciplined and on track and allowing them to play their natural game."

Keebra Park 28 (Heleta 2, Walters, Seve, Martin tries; Iroa 4 goals) d Patrician Brothers Blacktown 4 (Jennings try).