Bond Pirates struggling at senior level but given hope with their burgeoning junior player base

BOND Pirates’ burgeoning junior base is giving the Miami-based club hope for a brighter future at a senior level.

Bond Pirates under-9s coach Gary Jones with his team. Picture: Mike Batterham

BOND Pirates’ burgeoning junior base is giving the Miami-based club hope for a brighter future at a senior level.

The Pirates fought bravely all last season to make the Gold Coast District Rugby Union first grade semi-finals but this year have been plagued by a lack of depth.

It’s led to them going through the opening seven rounds winless and their campaign hit rock bottom last weekend when they were blown away 117-15 by Griffith University Colleges.

Rumours have swirled around their short-term future in the premier senior division and their case has not been helped by a change in coach earlier this month, with Jeff Bloomers stepping back.

Emerson McLeod has taken the reins.

But for all those challenges, the Pirates actually have reason to smile.

In the past five years, their number of juniors has risen from 110 to 280, now spread across 18 teams.

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On Friday nights when teams from under-6s to under-11s train, their fields are overrun with rising rugby players.

“We are probably up there with Helensvale (as the biggest junior base on the Gold Coast),” said Pirates junior president Randall Cook.

“We’re certainly one of the bigger clubs. We have seen rapid growth in our junior program over the past five years.

“We’re hoping next year we will be able to expand into girls teams as well.”

The Pirates are doing their level best to ensure they have the resources to nurture their up-and-coming talent too, which they hope will translate into long-term senior players down the track.

“We are looking at next year rejigging our whole coaching network. The last couple of years we have been trying to upskill all of our junior coaches,” Cook said, noting they had called on the insights of World Cup-winning Wallabies coach Bob Dwyer on multiple occasions.

The GCDRU senior competition has a representative round bye this weekend but junior fixtures will go ahead as normal.