Keebra Park coach Glen Campbell predicts COVID-19 will be the making of the school’s future NRL stars

The schoolboy rugby league coach who helped set Payne Haas and David Fifita on the path to NRL stardom as teenagers says COVID-19 could be the making of a new generation of talent.

The schoolboy rugby league coach who helped set Payne Haas and David Fifita on the path to NRL stardom as teenagers has predicted COVID-19 to be the furnace that forges a new generation of Keebra Park tyros.

The coronavirus shutdown has forced Queensland’s top rugby league students out of their semi-professional training environments and back to their backyards.

Payne Haas, Sean O'Sullivan and David Fifita of the Broncos are seen reacting during the Round 24 NRL match between the Brisbane Broncos and the Parramatta Eels at Suncorp Stadium in Brisbane, Friday, August 30, 2019. (AAP Image/Darren England)

It’s a setback with the potential to devastate the NRL prospects for many players, but also a chance for the brightest to gain a leg up on their competition, according to Keebra Park head coach Glen Campbell.

The common thread linking Keebra’s top sporting exports like Haas, Fifita, Benji Marshall and Jai Arrow, the coach said, was their ability to work when no-one else was watching.

Keebra Park Rugby League coach, Glen Campbell.. Picture Glenn Hampson

“The ones who make it (to the NRL), it’s the bits and pieces they do by themselves,” Campbell said.

“Discipline is intrinsic to success and just because you’re good at football doesn’t mean you’re willing to work for it.

“The people who don’t take a backward step or leave a stone unturned will be the ones who get the results.”

MORE GOLD COAST BULLETIN RUGBY LEAGUE

- ‘I go to myself three times a set’: ISC eSports Challenge

- Queensland will open borders for NRL on one condition

- What Bellamy said in epic Storm social media spray

To that end, Campbell has thrown down the gauntlet for the Keebra Park Class of 2020 to test their discipline by training in their own time.

“We decided to put our boys on a month of downtime with individual training programs to follow,” the coach said.

“There’s a fair bit of cardio and body weight exercises involved, and boys will send us in the specifics to monitor because we can’t meet face-to-face.

Queensland final of GIO Schoolboy Cup rugby league comp between Keebra Park High and Coombabah High. Keebra ParkWith the trophy singing the team song.. Picture Glenn Hampson

“It’ll be three weeks of hard yakka and hopefully we’ll get back and see who’s done the work.”

What shape his players will return in is as uncertain as the competition structure they will take part in, with the short-term future of the Allan Langer Trophy, Confraternity Cup and GIO National Schoolboys competitions unclear.

Campbell said Keebra Park had been in discussions with other schools about make-up fixtures in the event traditional competitions are unable to launch in 2020.