Steve Turner saga gets schoolboy twist

The Steve Turner saga has taken another twist with Melbourne and the Gold Coast Titans set for a tug-of-war over Palm Beach-Currumbin High schoolboy Kevin Proctor.

The Bulletin can reveal Australian Schoolboy Proctor is the development player the Gold Coast Titans have targeted in the swap for Storm grand final winger Turner.

But the Titans still face a battle, with Proctor's mentor, PBC coach Rod Patison, aware how much the Storm will want to keep him.

Turner has recanted on an agreement to play with the Titans and has signed a new deal with Melbourne.

The Titans have proposed the Storm release two junior talents plus pay $300,000 in exchange for the Gold Coast absolving Turner's three-year agreement.

Brisbane Norths Queensland Cup back Smith Samau, who has played one NRL game for the Storm, is the other development player.

The Titans feel Proctor is perfect for the club, as he is a Gold Coast junior who was snapped up before the new franchise came into existence.

The 17-year-old second rower is starring on the Australian Schoolboys tour of Great Britain.

"We didn't get an opportunity to sign him in the first place, so if he would like to come here we would love to have him," said Titans managing director Michael Searle yesterday.

"It would be good if he didn't have to leave the Gold Coast. He's got another year at PBC, so to get him back would be fantastic."

The Titans are going hard and heavy to get Proctor, who Melbourne spotted at an under-15s South Coast trial more than two years ago.

The Kiwi-born talent, whose father Dave is a prodigious rugby union coach, was then playing for Windaroo High School.

He moved to small Tweed school Lakeside Christian College, where despite interest from TSS for a union scholarship, the Storm scouted him and moved him to PBC last year.

Patison said yesterday Proctor, who does not return to Australian until Christmas Eve, was a player the Storm would want to keep.

"Knowing what they think of Kevin, it is going to be a hard decision for them to let him go," he said.

"My first thought when the idea of this swap deal came up was that of all the development players, Kevin Proctor has to be the best.

"My second thought was it would be almost impossible for Melbourne to do it."

But Titans coach John Cartwright said signing Proctor over to the Coast made 'perfect sense'.

"They signed him before we even got up and running, he goes to PBC and is still living on the Coast," said Cartwright.

"They want Steve Turner, so to me it makes perfect sense. Kevin would be able to stay here with all his mates.

"While Kevin has a huge amount of potential, Turner has played in a grand final and played 20 NRL games.

"Likewise, Samau is a really good performer in Queensland Cup and has his best years in front of him.

"We are talking about two guys who we think are a fair swap for who Steve Turner is.

"We are not asking nothing for nothing. What we are saying is Steve Turner has left a big hole in our squad, and we need to replace it."

Searle said the deal would set a precedent and his club would not back down on the terms they have laid out.

"I think we are all comfortable with the financial deal we have come up with," he said.

"It's now up to the decision of Melbourne on whether they want to release the two players.

"It's in the best interests of our game that a commercial arrangement is met, because it will set a precedent.

"It will become the burden for the NRL for the next 10 years if we whimsically release players based on a desire to change clubs.

"I think this is a reasonable solution.

"They are junior players -- it's not as if we have said we want a player of similar ilk.

"We did initially, but then we went back to the table and gave them another option.

"I don't think the Gold Coast Titans can go back to the table again with a better proposal, and we won't.

"We are done. This is it. That's our final proposal.

"If Melbourne want Steve Turner to play with them in 2007, they come to a resolution on the player swap."

Gold Coast Bulletin