Barry Ruttley, Jack Conlan & Drumayne Dayberg-Muir leave Southport but coach confident of 2020 success
The exit of three key players in Southport’s run to last year’s A grade grand final has done nothing to shake the belief of coach Steve Dowd, who insists his youthful Tigers can remain a premiership force in 2020.
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THE exit of three key players in Southport’s run to last year’s A grade grand final has done nothing to shake the belief of coach Steve Dowd, who insists his youthful Tigers can remain a premiership force in 2020.
Beaten by a rampant Burleigh in Rugby League Gold Coast’s top-grade decider in September, Southport’s quest for redemption has been made even tougher with the departures of fullback Barry Ruttley (work), centre Jack Conlan (Sawtell) and experienced halfback Drumayne Dayberg-Muir (retired).
With captain Tu Whakatihi-Paikea also weighing up retirement, the Tigers will again back their rising crop – led by the likes of Campbell Pirihi, Liam Hampson and Luke Polson – to help deliver their first title since 2014.
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Dowd has made a conscious not to go chasing players but is adamant the group that fired in 2019 can go one better this season.
“We’re a very young side and they’ll be better for what happened in the grand final. Burleigh were just too good for us on the day,” Dowd said.
“We’ll be competitive again this year. We’ve got the same calibre (of players). They’re all young boys, they’ll be better for last year and we can go again.
“We’ve got a lot of juniors coming through from the 20s and we had a real good under-18s last year – they got beaten by Burleigh in the grand final - so hopefully some of them boys can step up to first grade.
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“We’ve got other halves there to compensate for Drummy (Dayberg-Muir). Someone will jump out of the ground, one of the young blokes.
“We’re going to be a lot fitter (this year). To chase Burleigh down you’ve got to be fitter.”
The Tigers will again be aligned with Intrust Super Cup club Tweed Seagulls and Dowd said he would continue to chase a happy medium between on-field success and providing opportunities for players to go to the next level.
“I understand our role with Tweed aligning players to us, the job is to get them to Intrust Super (Cup),” he said.
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“I’ve won premierships and it’s great - don’t get me wrong, I want to win – but at Southport we have a philosophy to get players to Tweed and then to the (Gold Coast) Titans.
“We don’t see the value in taking players from other clubs, it just weakens the competition.”
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