How the Wests Tigers landed Keebra Park NRL gun Benji Marshall

He’s since gone on to win NRL titles and play more than 300 games, but Benji Marshall’s journey can be traced back to a smart move by a Sydney club.

MAY 22, 2002: He’s since gone on to win NRL titles and play more than 300 games, but Benji Marshall’s journey can be traced back to a smart move by a Sydney club.

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THE big guns from Sydney’s Wests Tigers National Rugby League club turned out in force at Keebra Park State High School.

Coach and former international five-eighth Terry Lamb, football operations manager Steve Lavers and chief executive officer Steve Noyce were there.

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As Noyce said, it was as much about getting to know the faces as it was about kicking off a new partnership between the club and the school.

That’s why Noyce had taken the trip north.

He could talk face-to-face with principal Fran Jones, the school’s football manager Peter Craig and senior coach Greg Lenton.

Benji Marshall in classroom at Keebra Park High School.

“We want this partnership to work so it’s important to get to know the people involved,” he said.

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Wests Tigers are looking at a result that will provide a pathway for talented, skill-ready rugby league players that leads to their door.

For Keebra Park there will be an injection of scholarship funds and gear that will total about $12,000 a year.

There will also be available the latest knowledge from Wests Tigers on subjects such as training methods, medical information and rehabilitation.

The benefits to the Gold Coast don’t stop there.

Keebra will pass this knowledge on through their web of contacts and clinics in numerous primary schools.

Lavers said rugby league clubs now had to be interested in ‘the whole person’.

Almost 50 per cent of the Tigers contracted players are in full-time studies, from civil engineering to journalism.

Benji Marshall, Jamaal Lolesi and coach Greg Lenton.

Neither club nor school are interested in just sport.

The 140-odd students who take rugby league as a subject at Keebra Park High must get the academic mix right or they can forget playing the football.

The Tigers don’t have any Queenslanders in their 26-man squad, but Lamb can see that changing pretty soon.

“There is so much talent in this region. I am sure we’ll see a few of these faces in the black and gold sooner than later,” he said.