Warriors put stake in Brisbane heartland with academy
Joel Gould |
Some of the greatest rugby league players to lace a boot have come out of Logan and now the Warriors are in prime position to snare the next crop.
The fourth-placed Warriors will establish a training academy and community program in the city in Brisbane’s south to offer an elite training and identification program and assist young people connect with sport and find career paths outside of footy.
Cameron Smith, Lote Tuqiri, Corey Parker, Brad Meyers, Josh Papalii and Jaydn Su’A are just a taste of the elite stars to have been produced by the Logan Brothers junior powerhouse club alone.
The Warriors have watched on as a suite of their best junior players joined Australian-based clubs on scholarships and moved into elite development systems.
The great Benji Marshall was a trailblazer who attended league powerhouse Keebra Park High on the Gold Coast as a youth before moving into the Wests Tigers system.
His move inspired a suite of players from New Zealand to follow suit and most of them were snapped up by NSW or Queensland-based clubs.
The new academy at Logan will help reverse that trend and with the huge number of New Zealand-born migrants in southeast Queensland will give them great access to elite youth, not just from Pacific nations but also local talent.
Warriors CEO Cameron George said the club would establish permanent staff in Logan to work closely with the community and find the talent that has proven to be abundant.
“Logan is a nursery. It is a rugby league hot-bed,” George said.
“It is a strategic move, absolutely, but we have been offered opportunities on the eastern seaboard before but never taken them up.
“The most important thing for us is to build better families and generations to come and when we came here and saw the Kiwi population that does live here there are plenty of fans here. The question I asked myself was: Why not?
“We have 12 academies in New Zealand doing really well but that shouldn’t preclude us from coming to Australia where we have a great connection with a huge fan base that grows all the time.
“If we can make kids become the best version of themselves as possible we will be proud. If we can get two or three footballers out of here, boys or girls, we will be happy and extremely proud.”
George said the elite academy for boys and girls in Logan would provide a direct pathway to the Warriors NRL and NRLW teams.
The Broncos, Gold Coast and most recently Dolphins have been in the best position to source juniors from their near neighbour Logan but now the Warriors are set to be a force.
The partnership with Logan City Council is one that Mayor Jon Raven said should fit hand in glove.
“Logan is the leading rugby league nursery in the nation and has one of the largest populations of people of New Zealand and Pacific Island descent outside of Auckland,” he said.
“The Warriors are known for their strong community connections and supporting development opportunities for young people, which are values we love here in Logan.”
AAP
