Junior Development

[mdrew]

Oskar Bryant who stood out as hooker of the U16 Andrew Johns Cup winning side earlier this season, started from the bench and scored his third try in as many matches for the Cudgen U18 NRRRL side as they defeated Ballina 18-12.

[mdrew]

Powerful young Ballina Seagulls U18 second rower Tupou Lolohea’s incredible 2019 season continued unabated on the weekend when he scored his 10th try in the opening five rounds of the NRRRL U18 competition on Sunday but he could not prevent Ballina going down 18-12 to Cudgen.

He then backed up to play in the reserve grade match that followed the U18’s.

[mdrew]

Firebrand Byron Bay young second rower and Ballina Coast student Kuyan Roberts-Laurie proved too much for The Tweed Heads Seagulls U18 side to handle in Round Five of the U18 NRRRL competition scoring a double as the Devils defeated Tweed Heads 30-10.

He then backed up to play his third NRRRL First Grade match of the season.

[mdrew]

Tweed Heads Seagulls U18 National Championship team

https://www.qrl.com.au/draw/junior-n...ls-v-steelers/

[mdrew]

In Round Nine of the Queensland Cup, Ioane Seuili started his third match in a row at left centre once again playing the entire 80 minutes against Norths. He ran for 112 metres (an impressive 58 post contact), broke three tackles, played the ball at an average speed of 4.3 seconds and made ten tackles.

[mdrew]

In Round Nine of the Queensland Cup, Tremain Spry started at right centre once again playing the entire 80 minutes against Norths. He ran for 121 metres (43 post contact), broke two tackles, played the ball at an average speed of 3.35 seconds and made thirteen tackles.

[mdrew]

Titans star in the making Thomas Weaver started once again at five eight for the Cudgen U18 NRRRL side and kicked three goals from as many attends as he led the Hornets to an 18-12 win over Ballina.

In his three U18 NRRRL matches to date this season (he is still U16 eligible) Thomas Weaver has amassed 24 points from a try and ten goals.

[ja4220]

PBC Vs Marsden is being streamed through Red Corner Promotions Facebook page for those that are interested.

[Mr Bods]

Mdrew-what went wrong in our inability to identify Briton Nikora?

[ja4220]

Mdrew-what went wrong in our inability to identify Briton Nikora?

I am starting to get confused Bods! What do you want? Gold Coast Locals or kids that were brought here as part of there development.
As Mdrew has said PBC and Keebra are highly regarded by all NRL teams. Kids come to those schools already signed to other clubs. They are bought here to expose them to higher levels of competition, and to bring them closer to the NRL clubs own programs.
The Titans have a relationship with PBC and Coombabah. They don’t own them, they don’t have dibs on all the kids. They give some coaching support to the programs.
To throw some rough numbers around, I believe PBC has about 25 kids in each grades Rugby League Excellence program. So for the open program there is roughly 55 to 60 kids (across grades 10 to 12) in the open program.
Keebra, from what I know is roughly the same and Coombabah is building especially in the lower grades.
So in the open age groups that’s roughly 150-180 kids in the u18 age group in excellence programs at 3 schools on the Gold Coast.
That doesn’t include schools like Marymount, who are building nicely under Matt Geyer, TSS who take kids for rugby, and a few other schools that are slowly building programs..
The Titans can’t claim them all. And like I said plenty of them, especially in the senior programs are brought up here by other clubs from other areas.
They are doing great things with the local kids. Kids that have previously been with other clubs are wanting to come back to the Titans. But just because a kid plays for a Gold Coast School doesn’t mean he has any ties to the Gold Coast.
Benji Marshall played at Keebra Park. He was brought here to play for a Keebra as a pathway. He was already tied to the Tigers.
Sorry for the long winded reply, but I am getting a bit sick of the “he was on the Gold Coast, he should be a Titan.”
Mdrew does a great job of identifying talent, keeping us up to date with what goes on.

[Mr Bods]

^^^ You have taken my a question about him the wrong way. I want to know how he slipped through, there might be something unique there to share, and it’s not up to mdrew anyway to sign players, mdrew isn’t responsible for who’s contracted and who’s not, he’s just the expert we have to make enquiries to.
Nikora wasn’t on one of those contracts I believe. Be interested therefore how he slipped through the radar.
Nikora is pretty good.

If you are saying he was brought up here by Cronulla well there’s my answer, but I’m not sure that’s the case here. Nikora might well be an actual GC local, which by the way in answer to your question is most certainly what I want. GC/Tweed/Northern Rivers locals.

PS-I appreciate your posts on this, it helps me and possibly the casual readers to have more insight into how this all operates.

[ja4220]

Yeah to be fair I meant to delete that last line.
Anyway PBC won there game today 30-14 against Marsden. An impressive win since a lot of there A grade starters were being rested for the Mal Meninga/SG Ball national final this weekend.
Ipswich beat Wavell and I haven’t found a result but I expect Keebra Beat St Mary’s

[Mr Bods]

Yeah to be fair I meant to delete that last line.
Anyway PBC won there game today 30-14 against Marsden. An impressive win since a lot of there A grade starters were being rested for the Mal Meninga/SG Ball national final this weekend.
Ipswich beat Wavell and I haven’t found a result but I expect Keebra Beat St Mary’s

Prepared to make a prediction for the Meninga/Ball GF??

Seagulls
1 Reece Walsh
2 Troy Duckett
3 Xavier Coates
4 Caleb Hodges
5 Jake Martin
6 Kade Hill
7 Toby Sexton
8 Ben Liyou
9 Ediq Ambrosyev
10 Solomon Torrens
11 Juwan Compain
12 Brendan Piakura
13 Carsil Vaikai
14 Joshua Bevan
15 Israel Higgins
16 James Torrens
17 Isiah Perrett

Who can we expect to see lighting up Robina Stadium and winning our first NRL GF in a few years time??

[ja4220]

If you believe the QRL website Reece Walsh is the next superstar. Personally I think the Broncos will churn and burn him..
There’s big wraps on Juwain Compain. Left the Broncos to come back for Teds
Xavier Coates is great, I’ve seen him play a little bit. Big strong fast centre. Not 100% sure if he is a titan.
There a couple of kids in that list I know are signed elsewhere but are re-evaluating there options....

[ja4220]

Sorry Mr Bods,
I assume this is the article that you were referring to when asking about Nikora.
The Sydney Morning Herald

SPORTNRLSHARKS
How Cronulla's star rookie slipped through the Titans' fingers
By Christian Nicolussi
May 8, 2019 — 4.46pm
Early NRL rookie of the year favourite Briton Nikora was snubbed by the Gold Coast Titans as a junior.

In fact, Nikora could not even crack the first team at the famous local Keebra Park High School.

"I was usually in the B team,'' said Nikora, who will try to continue his blazing start to his first year in the NRL when he takes on some of his school mates and the Titans on Thursday night.

Young gun: Cronulla's Briton Nikora.
Young gun: Cronulla's Briton Nikora.

Photo: AAP
If beggars belief that the struggling Titans failed to identify a talent such as Nikora. The gifted Kiwi, who moved to the holiday strip when he was nine, was forced to travel more than 1000 kilometres for a train-and-trial deal with Canberra before he signed a deal with Cronulla.

The Sharks have Nikora signed until the end of 2020, but a new extended deal will be the club's priority based on what they have seen during the opening two months from the kid wearing Luke Lewis' old No.11 jersey.


"I graduated in 2014 from Keebra Park, but I couldn't make their first team," Nikora said. "I don't think they had any faith in me. I came off their production line, sort of.

"I was a bit skinny and little; I was about 70 kilograms. I was in their B team and there wasn't much for me footy-wise after school.

"I was there when AJ Brimson was there, Phillip Sami; JJ Felise was in the starting team. I was playing in the Mal Meninga [under-18s competition], but there was nothing with the Titans.

"I went to Canberra for a train-and-trial and [then] trialled with Cronulla. I just needed to figure out where I would stay.

"Then Cronulla got back to me a week later and said, 'we'll fix you up with a place to stay' and gave me a two-year deal.


"I'm here until the end of next year. But I love it here. It's a nice area, good people."

When Sharks favourite Lewis retired last year, he had a fair idea who would be his successor on the Sharks' right edge.

"The thing I love about him, in my last pre-season, he really applied himself, put on weight, worked hard in the gym, he was always smiling and willing to learn,'' Lewis said.

"On the training park he'd run some really nice lines and built a nice combination with the halves.

"I knew he would be a special player once he got his opportunity.


"I love him, he's been absolutely outstanding. In my eyes, he's been Cronulla's best."

Calls for Nikora to force his way into the New Zealand Test team have already started and while the mid-year blockbuster against Tonga might come too soon, the end-of-year internationals appear a formality. So says Sharks captain Paul Gallen, who is a pretty tough marker.

"He's been outstanding,'' Gallen said. "He had Luke Lewis in front of him the past couple of years so he could have played a few more [NRL] games.

"He has been our best player. Certainly the back end of the year when he has 20-odd first-grade games under his belt, and if he keeps performing the way he has been performing, he will play [for New Zealand]. He is clearly going to be there for the Kiwis the next five to 10 years."

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Copyright © 2019o it does appear that he has deep ties to the Gold Coast, but didn't hit his stride til after he left.
Like I said you can't keep them all. He wasn't in the top 17 at his school.
To his credit, he dug in took a chance and made a fist of it so congratulations.
Once again I apologise. (Although I stand by my points haha)