Israel Folau debut: Runaway Bay select 19-year-old rookie Carn Connell
Runaway Bay will call up a 19-year-old A Grade debutant to stand opposite his idol Israel Folau in the highest profile Rugby League Gold Coast match in memory. FULL DETAILS >>>
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RUNAWAY Bay will call upon a 19-year-old A Grade debutant to stand opposite his idol Israel Folau in the highest profile Rugby League Gold Coast A Grade match in memory.
The eyes of the nation will be on Saturday’s Southport Tigers v Runaway Bay clash at Owen Park, where teenager Carn Connell - called up from Runaway Bay’s Under-20s team as the Seagulls’ fifth-choice fullback - will play the biggest 80 minutes of his life.
While Folau stands to earn over $20,000 for taking the field, Connell will take home his first ever rugby league paycheck, less than $400.
His opponent’s big name and salary don’t intimidate him a bit.
“I don’t really look into that stuff,” Connell said.
“I’m just playing for the footy. I don’t care about money.”
The Mackay-born product has scored six tries in five games for Runaway Bay’s Under-20s in his comeback season from a major knee injury that derailed his final two years at Keebra Park in 2019 and 2020.
The loss of starting fullback Jack Mackin to an ACL injury in round one, the injury to skipper Jimmy Poland that forced second-string Tevin Arona into the halves, and the call-ups of Joe Joshua (PNG Hunters) and Tyler Han (Tweed Under-21s) have handed Connell the most remarkable debut he could have imagined.
FOLAU GETS NASTY: IZZY SUING QRL FOR ‘DISCRIMINATION’
IZZY WOULD HAVE SAVED ORIGIN ANNIHILATION
“I’m really looking forward to it,” he said.
“I think it will be a massive opportunity. Definitely a big step up vs one of my idols.
“I’ll be nervous when I run out but more excited than anything.
“I’m ready, I’m confident.”
Connell will play in front of the biggest audience of his life but coach Nick Gleeson said the youngster wouldn’t have been picked if he wasn’t mentally up to the task.
“He’s slotted straight in, he knows our system and he knows what to do,” Gleeson said.
“He’s a pretty cool kid. When I told him he’d be making his debut he wasn’t jumping out of his skin, he was pretty casual about it all.
“I don’t think playing against Folau is going to phase him.”
‘That’s bulls---!’: Palmer official blindsided by Folau signing
- Nic Darveniza, 5 July
Israel Folau has signed a professional rugby union contract with Japanese Top League side NTT Communications Shining Arcs for the 2022 season - shocking even those closest to Southport Tigers patron Clive Palmer.
Folau will complete the season with the Southport Tigers in Gold Coast Rugby League A Grade before shipping out to Japan later this year.
A Palmer United Party spokesperson’s fiery reaction to the news was to label it ‘bulls---’, before cooling down when supplied a copy of the official release.
Southport Tigers president Tim Mahoney said Folau had always been in communication with the club about his future plans.
“We’ve been in constant communication with Israel so we knew he was signing with NTT,” Mahoney said.
FOLAU GETS NASTY: IZZY SUING QRL FOR ‘DISCRIMINATION’
IZZY WOULD HAVE SAVED ORIGIN ANNIHILATION
“He’s made a commitment to us until the end of 2021 and the Japanese season doesn’t start until January, so there’s no conflict there.
“His agent who brokered the deal in Japan made sure they understood the commitment he’d made to Southort and they all agreed.”
Folau is still yet to play a game for Southport after the recent Covid-19 lockdown postponed his debut apperance until this weekend coming.
With six games remaining in the season Southport sit equal-fifth, with Folau required to play in four matches to qualify for the local A Grade finals should Southport turn their season around.
Sacked Waratahs coach Rob Penney was also announced as the NTT Communications Shining Arcs’ new Director of Rugby, where Folau will line up alongside former Wallabies teammates Liam Gill and Christian Lealiifano.
Lealiifano debuted alongside Folau against the British & Irish Lions in 2013 and expressed his desire to see Folau play elite level sport again in 2019.
“It’s nice to hopefully see him play some footy,” Lealiifano said in Tokyo ahead of the Wallabies’ Rugby World Cup match against Wales.
“He’s an exceptional talent and someone I feel would be wasted to not play sport again.
“It’d be nice to see him run around. It should be cool and I am happy for him if he gets to do that.”
COVID’S LAST LAUGH IN FOLAU DEBUT SAGA - July 2
BRISBANE’S 24-hour extended lockdown has had a flow-on effect to Gold Coast sport, with a number of competitions forced to cancel fixtures this weekend as a result.
Israel Folau’s highly-anticipated rugby league return will be put on ice for at least another week, with Rugby League Gold Coast chairman Peter Daley confirming all fixtured games this weekend had been called off.
Southport and Currumbin’s Saturday night fixture had previously been moved to Sunday afternoon but it will no longer go ahead.
Daley said the call was made in line with the Queensland Rugby League’s decision to postpone all Intrust Super Cup and affiliated statewide competitions as a result of the extended Brisbane lockdown.
FOLAU GETS NASTY: IZZY SUING QRL FOR ‘DISCRIMINATION’
IZZY WOULD HAVE SAVED ORIGIN ANNIHILATION
He added that a number of Rugby League Gold Coast players likely lived in the Brisbane and Moreton Bay areas that had gone into extended lockdown and thus teams would be impacted as a result.
In a statement released Friday morning, the QRL confirmed the postponement of the Intrust Super Cup and Hastings Deering Colts fixtures, to now be played on the weekend of July 24-25.
AFL Queensland also moved to abandon all matches in South East Queensland and Northern New South Wales this weekend.
The QAFLW grand finals, due to be played at Yeronga on Saturday and featuring Bond University, have been postponed to Sunday, July 11.
Elsewhere, Football Gold Coast has cancelled all fixtures this weekend in line with Football Queensland’s decision to postpone all National Premier Leagues Queensland matches.
That means both Gold Coast Knights and Gold Coast United’s home games on Sunday have been postponed.
Meet the Currumbin plumber tasked with stopping Israel Folau
Callum Dick - July 1, 2021
COOPER Hennessey was seven years old when he watched an on-debut Israel Folau torch his beloved Wests Tigers for the matchwinning try on the opening night of the 2007 NRL season.
Later that year, a nine-year-old Lachlan Smith’s dreams of a Parramatta premiership were shattered by Folau and co in a preliminary final at the old Telstra Dome, now Marvel Stadium.
Fourteen years on, the Currumbin Eagles pair loom as the two gatekeepers to Folau’s successful rugby league return with Southport on Sunday at 3pm.
Galleon Way is far removed from the old Olympic Park and Telstra Dome venues that Folau lit up en route to the 2007 Dally M Rookie of the Year.
But the suburban ground at Currumbin Waters stands as the 2021 proving ground for a 32-year-old Folau to show his new club and its billionaire backer Clive Palmer that his hefty $250,000 pay packet to play local footy is worth it.
FOLAU GETS NASTY: IZZY SUING QRL FOR ‘DISCRIMINATION’
IZZY WOULD HAVE SAVED ORIGIN ANNIHILATION
If Currumbin coach Matt Geyer was moving the magnets for Southport on Saturday, he would have Israel Folau playing in either the No. 1 or No. 4.
And Geyer would know best, having won an NRL grand final alongside Folau at the Melbourne Storm in 2007.
Thus the nigh-impossible task of containing the dual-international will likely fall to either Smith, 23, or Hennessey, 21; plumber and stonemason, respectively, from worlds far removed to that of Folau.
While Folau was earning his millions in the NRL, AFL and later with the Wallabies, Smith and Hennessey toiled away at a local level and began careers outside of footy.
Folau will reportedly earn five figures for playing on Saturday; Smith and Hennessey had to pay their own registration fees.
Footy for Folau is a living; for them, a lifestyle. On Saturday night, those two worlds will collide.
Livewire fullback Smith is enjoying a breakout A-Grade campaign for the Eagles this season, but for all the quality No. 1s he has matched up against so far none quite compare to the potential high watermark of Folau.
Hennessey meanwhile started the year in the second row but through injury and absence will be tasked to plug a hole at right-centre for Geyer this weekend.
Then there’s the other options at centre. A 21-year-old apprentice sparky, Ben Willetts, and mortgage broker Tom Berkers, also 21.
“It’s a trial by fire for them,” Geyer said of the impending match-ups.
“None of them will be able to handle Israel on their own if he plays centre. We’ll have to defend that edge as a team.
“I won’t be putting (the onus) on a 21-year-old who’s played a handful of games of A-Grade footy to do that job.
“There will be no ‘stop Izzy or else’ from me.”
But Eagles skipper Jarrod Gill has faith in his young teammates to put their best foot forward when called upon on Saturday.
“They’re more than capable of stopping him,” Gill said.
“They can all play good football; no different to what Israel Folau is going to do.
“I don’t really know what anyone else is thinking, but I know I’m excited for (the challenge).
“I dare say it will be a pretty good crowd down there on the weekend.”
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