Robert Craddock: How the new Kiwi academy will spark a rugby league turf war in Queensland
Another Queensland derby is in the books, but it’s the arrival of a premiership rival in one of south east Queensland’s most fertile regions which could become the hotbed of league’s next turf war.
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The greatest surprise about the New Zealand Warriors new Logan academy is that it took them 30 years to get around to it.
With so many New Zealand families living in the region, and the rich Gold Coast nursery just up the road, you just know that whatever resources the Warriors put into this venture will be richly rewarded.
They’ve been in the competition since 1995. It’s a surprise, given how fertile the region is they didn’t do it decades ago.
All three of the south-Queensland teams – the Broncos, Titans and Dolphins – will suffer from this initiative.
With the Perth Bears and Papua New Guinea entering the competition, the war for talent is red hot and getting hotter. And its spicy because the game has no boundaries. You can set up academy on the moon if you wish.
The Broncos have had a strong connection with Christchurch’s Aranui High School and would send coaches to help promising youngsters.
The Titans will be concerned over the limitations to their talent pool given they have had another extremely poor season with a heart-breaking field goal loss to the Wests-Tigers despite some thrilling attacking moves from AJ Brimson and halfback Jayden Campbell.
LOCAL LEGEND
Long-time Queensland rugby league fans have been saddened by the death of former Queensland hooker Gary Prickett.
A premiership player with Brisbane Wests in 1976 and a school teacher as well as a footballer, the ginger–haired Prickett was known as a copybook defender who played two non-State of Origin games for Queensland in 1981.
Prickett, a junior teammate of Norm Carr and John Ribot, retained his Queensland jumper until his death. He was a member of Wests’ team of the century and was a teacher for 36 years.
Brisbane’s champion hooker of the 1970s, Johnny Lang, recently told historian Michaell Nunn that Pricket “didn’t have a weakness but defence was his strength. He had an excellent tackling technique and he did plenty of it. A great hooker in Brisbane in ghe 1970s.’’
UNLUCKY DEVIL
Norths Devils coach Rohan Smith is the unlucky man in every discussion about future NRL coaches.
Smith, son of former long-serving first grade coach Brian, has been an assistant of four NRL clubs. Perhaps he pays the price for not having a high profile manager or talking himself but his record is imposing.
He joined the Devils in 2018 and, with a major rebuild, put in place a system which has won three of the last four premierships. In 2022 he was signed by Leeds and took them to the English Super League grand final, losing the Kristian Woolf’s St Helens.
He’s now back coaching the Devils where his record since 2020 is 35 wins and seven losses. Plenty of coaches have picked up NRL gigs doing far less in the game. Rugby league is struggling to find the next batch of coaches. Smith is worth a chance.
RED ALERT
Rugby league took a rare back seat in Brisbane on the weekend due to the stunning presence of the British and Irish Lions.
Brisbane embraced the Lions and their fans and the hospitable staff at Indooroopilly Golf Club even managed to squeeze a couple of groups of Lions players into a packed field on Brisbane’s most serene gold club late in the week.
The Wallabies were not disgraced in a narrow Test loss but if there was one warning to come out of the game for rugby league it would be not to let the video referee ruin your game.
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Originally published as Robert Craddock: How the new Kiwi academy will spark a rugby league turf war in Queensland
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