Gold Coast Rugby league community mourns Tweed Seagulls founding father Tom Searle

The Gold Coast and Tweed rugby league community is today in mourning following the passing of revered league icon Tom Searle.

THE Gold Coast and Tweed rugby league community is today in mourning following the passing of revered league icon Tom Searle.

One of the code’s most influential figures and a founding father of the Titans, Searle died in Sydney on Monday following a year-long battle with brain cancer.

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He was 73-years-old.

Gold Coast Titans Chairman Dennis Watt paid tribute to a great rugby league man to whom “all of us who love the game owe so much”.

“I remember the reverence there was for Tom Searle as a player. Yet, as a man and a mentor, he stood even taller in the lives of all those people he impacted in such a positive and caring way,” Watt said.

“Like all champions, he handled his illness with extraordinary dignity and courage.

“We will not forget him, nor his legacy of looking for and finding the best in others.

“His loss – to his family, including Titans founder Michael, to the broader rugby league family and to the community itself – is immense.”

Searle’s association with Gold Coast rugby league dates back to the 1970s when he joined the Tweed Seagulls as captain-coach.

Gold Coast rugby league legend Tom Searle has passed away. Pic John Wilson

The previous season he’d represented NSW Country from Tamworth, playing against City at the SCG in his first season after spending three years in the English top flight with Yorkshire club Keighley.

He knocked back offers to play in Sydney with Cronulla and Norths but preferred to head to Tweed Heads.

Searle took the wooden spooners from last in 1971 to a losing grand final against the Gold Coast Tigers.

He led the Seagulls into eight grand finals as a back-rower in the days when Tweed played in the Group 18-Gold Coast competition.

Former Gold Coast Chargers CEO and Titans chairman Paul Broughton said Searle’s contribution to rugby league is unmatched.

“Tom Searle’s contribution to the game of rugby league is without parallel,” he said.

“From Group 4 CRL, United Kingdom, Tweed Heads, Gold Coast, Northern Rivers, he left an indelible mark on the playing and the development of the game and to the growth of the sport.

“He owned every position in the game as a player, captain coach through CRL clubs and both Northern States Leagues onto the Chargers then laid the pathway for the player development of the Gold Coast Titans.

“He made the game about which he was so passionate a better game and those who played it, better people.”

In 1992 with his playing days behind him, Searle sat on the board of the Seagulls when the club hit financial difficulty after poker machines were introduced to Queensland, meaning the club could no longer fund a team and were forced to sell their home ground.

Searle took over as President of the club in 2000 and oversaw the Seagulls entry into the QLD Cup in 2003.

They went on to win their maiden QLD Cup premiership in 2007.

In 2007 Searle joined the newly formed Gold Coast Titans as recruitment manager.

The father of Titans founder Michael Searle, Tom played a part in all incarnations of professional rugby league teams on the Gold Coast dating back to the Seagulls in the 1970s.

He was a confidant for Michael as the Titans were awarded an NRL licence from 2007 and spotted the likes of Ryan James, Kevin Gordon, David Mead and Matt Srama as the club’s junior recruiter.

Foundation Titans coach John Cartwright said Tom Searle played a huge role in the creation of the club and Gold Coast league.

“I was new to the area and to see how well he was respected by everyone in the game at all levels — from players to parents to officials — he was such a popular bloke,” a shattered Cartwright said.

“I became great friends with Tommy and spent a lot of time with him, even after our time at the Titans finished.

“There are a lot of guys running around that have earned a living out of football on the back of Tommy’s work in recruitment at a lot of different Gold Coast franchises.

“He was not only very good at what he did, he was one of my very best friends.

“I went and saw him yesterday. I was very lucky that he was in hospital in Sydney, I just finished work and drove up to the hospital to say my farewells to him.

“He didn’t miss anything over the past year. He fought it very hard and right until the end.”

Searle remained a Seagulls boy at heart and even acted as a ground announcer and scoreboard attendant during Intrsut Super Cup games in his later years.