Helensvale Hornets set to enter Rugby League Gold Coast A-grade in 2019

RAPID growth across their junior program is set to drive Helensvale to a long-awaited return to Rugby League Gold Coast’s top tier.

Helensvale Hornets captain-coach Matt Steley (centre) with rising star Ashton Court (left) and club vice president Damien Knox (right). Picture: Richard Gosling

RAPID growth across their junior program is set to drive Helensvale to a long-awaited return to Rugby League Gold Coast’s top tier.

The Hornets have not featured in A-grade senior football since 2004 but have already signalled plans to be mixing it with the Gold Coast’s best next year after this season taking a step up from the Debbie Marzella Cup to the Doug Lipp Cup.

Back when the Hornets fell out of the premier division, they were struggling to keep pace with bigger rivals, recalled Wayne Court, who stepped into the presidency in 2005.

“We were only a little club then,” he told the Bulletin.

“Financially the club was struggling. We only had 13 junior teams at the time and no division one teams and no real sides that were producing decent footballers that were sticking around.

“It was never really the set-up for it to be able to succeed and sustain it.”

Now, after an extended period of rebuilding from the bottom up, the Hornets are a match for any rival in terms of player base.

They have more than 600 kids in their green and gold jerseys across 40 junior teams.

“We’ve gone from one of the smaller clubs to last year being the second biggest in Queensland by only five players,” Court said. “This year we will probably be the biggest club in Queensland.”

A key element of that junior influx has been a push up into the under-19 competition on the back of an under-17 premiership last year.

Ashton Court will line-up in Helensvale’s return to the Rugby League Gold Coast under-19 competition. Picture: Richard Gosling

Many of those players are already being touted for big things, such as inaugural Titans playmaker Preston Campbell’s son Jayden.

Under the leadership of new captain-coach Matt Steley – who Court said has got team culture at an all-time high – the Hornets are targeting a DLC finals berth in 2018 and genuine competitiveness in A-grade next year.

Court added promotion will provide their talented up-and-comers, including Jayden, with a pathway.

“We have got quite a lot of our blokes playing under-19s now that are well and truly up to stepping up to A-grade next year straight away and half of them probably could now if they wanted to,” he said.

Helensvale will start their DLC and under-19 campaigns against Tugun on April 21.