Ranked: Southport five-eighth Israel Folau voted most desirable recruit in Rugby League Gold Coast
IF budget, position of need, eligibility and transfer points were taken out of the question, which Rugby League Gold Coast player would you want to bring to your club?
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IF budget, position of need, eligibility and transfer points were taken out of the equation, which Rugby League Gold Coast player would you want to bring to your club?
The question was put to dozens of Gold Coast A Graders last month and the answer has been resounding.
Israel Folau is the hottest commodity in the competition, with a move to five-eighth helping the former State of Origin and Wallabies superstar hit top form.
Folau has scored five tries in two weeks in the Southport No.6 jersey, with the ability to beat a man and race away from the defence unparalleled in local competition.
Nearly one in six voters answered that Folau was the man they would target if placed in charge of their club’s recruitment for 2022.
That is more than double the votes tallied by Helensvale fullback Brent Barnes, Burleigh middle forward Lochlyn Sheldon and fullback Taine Tuapiki.
Just nine players attracted more than a single vote, with the option of none also proving popular.
TOP 10
Israel Folau, Southport – 14.8%
Brent Barnes, Helensvale – 6.6%
Lochie Sheldon, Burleigh – 6.6%
Taine Tuapiki, Burleigh – 6.6%
None – 6.6%
Jacob Schmike, Mudgeeraba – 4.9%
Kody Parsons, Tugun – 3.2%
Drumayne Dayberg-Muir, Mudgeeraba – 3.2%
Te Aranui Doyle, Southport – 3.2%
Alex Bishop, Runaway Bay – 3.2%
ALLAN LOCKWOOD VOTED COMPETITION’S TOUGHEST TO TACKLE
Burleigh’s Allan Lockwood looks unassumning on the rugby league field.
Not the biggest, or the fastest.
It almosts lulls oppositions into a false sense of security because just when they’re about to wrap him up, the player voted the toughest to tackle in Rugby League Gold Coast throws out his signature weapon: his left arm fend.
Opponents hit the dirt shocked that they’ve missed yet again as Lockwood races by.
“I guess I’m underestimated a lot,” Lockwood said.
“I can be awkward to tackle because I look way shorter than what I am.
“I pride myslef on my carries (so) winning this survey is a massive honour for me.”
The honour is doubly impressive for the candidates Lockwood has beaten out.
Former Maroon Israel Folau, on a try-scoring tear from five-eighth for Southport, was pipped by a single vote.
Currumbin fullback Lachie Smith and Runaway Bay’s Doryaan Hape-Apiata tied for third.
“I’m definitely a litle bit surprised,” Lockwood said.
Southport legend steps into the spotlight
At a club with two of the highest profile players in the competition it would be easy to fly under the radar.
Luckily wrecking ball Southport Tigers forward Nazareth Monsall doesn’t mind sharing the spotlight.
His name doesn’t appear often in the scoresheet often but Monsall’s value to his side is immense.
Deep into his 12th season at the Southport Tigers after moving to the Gold Coast from New Zealand, Monsall is the club’s reigning Most Valuable Player and a multiple premiership winner.
Representative selection and accolades have largely eluded the club captain, until today.
The 30-year-old has been voted the most underrated player in Rugby League Gold Coast.
“I thought it was a big stitch up but I’ll take it,” Monsall said.
“I’m not a big superstar name, I just go about doing the little things on the field.
“It’s always nice to get recognised by your mates for what you do on the field.
“Quite a lot of boys looking for that higher level of footy come down to the club and kill but I’ve just been hanging around for years doing the same thing.
“Maybe I’ll get more overrated next season once everyone watches me play.”
Grandson of beloved hardman voted toughest on Coast
There’s two sides to being tough, according to the Rugby League Gold Coast ace voted by his peers as the toughest player in the competition.
First there’s physical toughness that allows you to bounce off the deck after a collision impact similiar to a car crash.
Then there’s mental toughness, the inner fire to convince yourself to do it again, 40-60 times per game.
Burleigh hooker Jodan Scott has both in spades but the veteran A Grader explained he just doesn’t know any other way.
He is the grandson of former South Sydney captain John Sattler, revered as the toughest rugby league player of all time.
“Toughness is something I’ve always prided myself on,” Scott said.
“Being tough is something I’d rather be known for than anything else.
“Especially knowing who my grandfather is is another reason to live up to that and I always have.”
Scott said his high tolerance for pain had not gone unnoticed by his family growing up.
He figures it was something he was born with, a gene passed down from his famous grandfather and beyond.
Scott believed Sattler would be proud of the footballer he has become, despite his poor health in later life.
“He’s not doing so well at the moment, sort of what happens when you get old,” Scott said.
“That’s a hard one to answer but I imagine he would be.”
Pizzey Park is Gold Coast Rugby League’s best venue
PIZZEY Park remains the gold standard for local footy venues, according to players in the Rugby League Gold Coast A Grade competition.
The grand has been the traditional home of the Grand Final for years, with large dressing sheds, a dedicated warm-up area and accompanying Leagues Club which made the ground a favourite of 41 per cent of the competition.
The Intrust Super Cup-standard facilities are a touch above the offerings elsewhere in the completion.
Burleigh coach Matt Foster said sentimentality would have been a factor for players when voting for the competition’s best ground in a recent survey conducted by the Bulletin.
“It’s possibly to do with the association of the venue with the Grand Final for so long,” he said.
“If you’re playing at Burleigh you’re usually creating memories.
“That aside, obviously the facilities are pretty good with changing rooms up there with some of the best in local footy.
“The field itself is well looked after for the amount of games it hosts. The council look after it well.”
Runaway Bay’s Bycroft Oval was the runner up with nearly 15 per cent of the vote, narrowly ahead of Currumbin’s Galleon Way.
Gold Coast guns most likely to reach the NRL
NEWS that Currumbin hooker Cole Geyer had signed with Melbourne was still a secret when the Bulletin invited local A Graders to vote for the local player most likely to reach the NRL.
That Geyer won the voting regardless is a sign of how highly regarded the Eagles rake is in Rugby League Gold Coast circles.
No hooker has scored more tries than Geyer in the past two seasons.
If not for the promotion of his father Matt to the head coaching role at Currumbin Geyer’s path would have surely led to the Intrust Super Cup with Burleigh.
Having his godfather Cameron Smith, the greatest hooker rugby league has seen, in his corner has aided his rapid development.
“He was really good for me shaping all the little things,” Geyer said.
“There wasn’t much one-on-one training but watching him (while growing up) really helped me.
“I don’t think NRL teams just hand out contracts. They obviously see something in me and I’m grateful. I’m going to do everything I can to pay them back.”
The second-most popular vote-getter hasn’t been seen much in A Grade this season but was a regular just last season.
That player is Shallin Fuller, the Burleigh half/fullback who this week signed with the Gold Coast Titans.
Israel Folau of Southport also received votes from players who believed the former Maroon still had what it takes at 32.
COAST FOOTY’S ANSWER TO SLEDGE KING WILL CHAMBERS
THE vote for Rugby League Gold Coast’s cheekiest and most prolific sledger was never going anywhere but to Burleigh’s Jordan Scott.
The hooker received nearly five times the votes of any other player in a Bulletin survey distributed to players earlier this month.
To Scott, sledging and bantering with opposition is as intrinsic to rugby league as it is to cricket, where the art of a cutting jibe has long been celebrated.
“It’s never anything malicious or personal,” Scott explained.
“I’ve done it since I first started playing footy when you’re just throwing sledges.
“I know my old man was a lot the same and I get it from my uncles who also threw a bit of chat around the field.
“I’ve been brought up cheeky. I guess you’re just lucky that you can’t throw punches these days so you throw a bit of chat instead.”
Whether untying opponent’s shoelaces at a scrum or a quiet word – ‘Your teammates are right, you really are a d------- aren’t you?’ – Scott revels in the opportunity to throw opposition off their game.
It comes as little surprise the hooker holds Michael Ennis and Will Chambers, two of the greatest nigglers in this generation of rugby league, as some of his heroes.
“I’ve always loved players like that,” he said.
“As much as people hate them they make the game with their rivalries against other teams and other players.”
Scott’s antics came back to bite him before the sporting shutdown after a barb to Mudgeeraba forward Lorenzo Ma’afu caused him to lose his cool, lashing out at a scrum and earning a four-week suspension.
The line that sparked the confrontation was the suggestion that Ma’afu’s skills would be better served in the MMA Octagon than the footy field.
Scott would have missed the bulk of the remaining with a broken cheekbone if not for the month-long sporting shutdown, which gave him time to recover.
Scott rated Alex Bishop from Runaway Bay and Jesse Malcolm from Mudgeeraba as some of his favourite sparring partners in the 2021 competition but the great Drumayne Dayberg-Muir as the competition’s best over a decade.
THE HARDEST WORKING PLAYER IN GOLD COAST RUGBY LEAGUE
CURRUMBIN Eagles stalwart Jarrod Gill’s first reaction when told he had been voted the hardest working player in Gold Coast rugby league in a survey of his peers was suspicion.
The 28-year-old one-club man had never played representative football, or collected major individual accolades for his play.
Gill figured he was invisible doing grunt work for a club still chasing its first A Grade title.
In fact, the truth was the opposite.
Gill received nearly double the votes of joint runners-up Reece Summer (Burleigh) and Bailey Court (Helensvale).
“To be honest I was very surprised,” he admitted.
“I didn’t know if it was one of my mates taking the p--- out of me.
“I play front row so I do a front-rower job, it’s pretty much how I’ve played my whole life.
“I just make my tackles and run hard, I didn’t think I’d get many votes at all.”
In a competition full of new faces in 2021 Gill has always struck true to his beloved blue-collar club.
Tipping the scales at just over 100 kilograms and standing around 180 centimetres tall he is far from the most intimidating player in the competition yet his teammates - and, as he learned his opponents - hold him in the highest regard.
RANKED: BIGGEST HITTER
RUGBY League Gold Coast A Graders have crowned Runaway Bay enforcer Doryaan Hape-Apiata as the hardest hitter in the competition.
The Seagulls colossus received 13.1% of the vote in a player survey distributed by the Bulletin last week, ahead of Burleigh’s Ben Valeni and Tugun’s Kody Parsons.Coach Nick Gleeson said Hape-Apiata’s reputation for strong tackling was well-earned.
“That does not surprise me,” Gleeson said of the accolade.
“He just adds that intimidation factor really.
“When some of those outside backs come infield ‘Doorz’ likes to clean them up pretty quickly.
“He doesn’t go looking for the big shot, he just has great technique.
“I’m definitely glad I’ve got him in my side and I’m sure his teammates would agree.”
Hape-Apiata has inflicted pain across multiple footy codes as a regular player in the Coast rugby union competition as well with Gold Coast Eagles and Palm Beach Currumbin.
He will return to the fray for Runaway Bay this weekend against Helensvale in Sunday afternoon footy after a stint out with a broken hand.
Gleeson said Bay missed his physical presence.
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