Meet the junior Titan taking schoolboys rugby league by storm

He’s the star playmaker the Titans have had under lock and key since he was 15 - meet Tom Weaver, PBC’s not-so secret weapon. LIVESTREAM LANGER TROPHY ROUND 2 >>>

• Watch replays: Coombabah v Mabel Park, Redcliffe
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THE MAN at the wheel of Palm Beach Currumbin’s Langer Trophy title success a year ago has returned with a warning for his rivals – I’m even better than before.

Weaver was handed the keys to the reds’ attack last season and alongside halves partner Ryan Rivett led PBC to a third-straight Langer Trophy.

Tom Weaver’s class shone through in the elite schoolboys competition, showing why the Gold Coast Titans snapped him up as a 15-year-old.

In what has long been the proving ground for many a future NRL star, the Langer Trophy was a perfect platform for the playmaker to test his mettle against the best in the state.

“It was definitely a big step-up for me. I’d never played at that level of rugby league before,” Weaver said of his Year 11 season.

“It was a great experience for me and now, to be able to come back and do it all again I’m all the better for having played in the competition last year.”

Tom Weaver, Palm Beach Currumbin SHS. PICTURE: Brad Fleet

For all his obvious playmaking potential, Weaver said it was the intangibles he learned playing in the Langer Trophy last year that most evolved his game.

“I needed to learn a few different things about my game,” he said.

“How to manage a game better; how to take control of my team, which I hadn’t had to do in the past when I’d played at a lower level of football.”

Weaver’s rising star was shot out of a cannon following his Langer Trophy efforts – and he has only gone to new heights this year, piloting Tweed Seagulls to a Mal Meninga Cup state title on May 1.

The bulk of that Tweed side also plays at PBC and at the helm of both teams is experienced coach Tim Maccan.

“I think there’s … eight of us that played in that grand final that are at PBC at the moment and probably another four or five that were in the Tweed squad,” Weaver said.

“Playing in that competition earlier in the year then coming to play school footy together now, I think, will make us all the better as a team.

“We play a similar game style because there’s so many of us and our coaches at Tweed are our coaches at PBC … it relays really well into school footy.”

Palm Beach Currumbin halfback Tom Weaver. Picture: Richard Gosling

PBC’s title defence got off to the perfect start last week with a 44-12 win over Ipswich SHS.

The reigning champions travel to Toowoomba on Tuesday to face St Mary’s.

Every game from the Langer Trophy, as well as the Langer Reserves and Walters Cup will be livestreamed by The Gold Coast Bulletin this year.

LIVESTREAM SCHEDULE – TUESDAY, JUNE 8

at Wavell SHS

4.30pm: Coombabah v Wavell (Walters Cup)

5.30pm: Coombabah v Wavell (Langer Trophy)

at Slacks Creek RLC

3.00pm: Keebra Park v Mabel Park (Langer Reserves)

4.00pm: Keebra Park v Redcliffe (Walters Cup)

5.00pm: Keebra Park v Mabel Park (Langer Trophy)

at Brandon Park

2.00pm: Palm Beach Currumbin v Forest Lake (Walters Cup)

at Brothers RLFC

4.00pm: Palm Beach Currumbin v St Mary’s (Langer Trophy)