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Written Saturday 19/05/2007

LEAGUE TITLES DAY,  DALBY QLD,  FRIDAY 18/05/2007.

I attended the QSSRL titles second day yesterday,  Friday in Dalby.  Competition was quite serious,  and the boys quite big.  Standing with the Broncos guys,  or near them,  size has become oblivious to them.  From where I stood,  some of these 18 year olds were really quite big.

Again people filed past and paid homage to the great talent ID godfather,  Cyril Connell,  bringing him gifts (coffee mainly) and seemingly being in awe of his great ability to spot kids.  He is good at it,  that can't be questioned.

I caught the Downs boys win their first one for the tournament at 9:30.  I thought personally that Lucas McKenna was great,  and he is a 16 year old,  scored a couple of tries from the wing, then moved into first receiver,  and probably scored another.  Another 16 year old that goes really quite well,  Mark Soxie Gordon also got a run in this age division.  Couple of guys that have played a bit of rugby now  back in league,  Steven Lees and Sterling Keys.  Sterling has always been a quite gifted ball carrier,  particularly from broken field situations,  but didn't get alot of game time on this particular morning.  Mark Appleton too is in the side and has had a dabble with rugby over the years,  and is currently a Regional College member, and will play in the Darling Downs Schoolboys open side later in the month.  Personally I wish a few more of them would have had a dabble in rugby over the years,  I am sure four or five more of guys of that calibre would have delivered us close to state titles winning combinations over the years.

The next game of particular interest was Northern or North Qld (sort of ) vs Metropolitan North.  The Northern side turned out to be pretty hot after trailing to mow them down and chew them up,  can't remember the score.  It was a nice tough game all the same though.

On the far right is Lachlan Creighton,  played for Qld under 16 white in 2006,  from memory he was captain.

I like that picture!

Then came Metropolitan East vs Sunshine Coast from an interest point of view.  Metropolitan East of course contains Dalby product,  and Broncos bound Andrew McCullough.  Always good to watch Andrew go around and he didn't disappoint with a couple of quite masterful touches as well as picking up a double I think.  The game was pretty tight for a while with Met East finally getting the honours.  Lot of State High boys in that side,  not sure how many of them play rugby though.  Macca is certainly a different proposition on a rugby league field to a rugby field,  and I guess it comes from game knowledge,  and love of and for the game.  I am one that would very much enjoy him succeeding immensely at his short stint in rugby,  personal  point proving stuff I guess,  but he may dislike the game and not have long enough to gain his feet in the code,  here's hoping though,  would be great to see him blow some other of his more fancied rivals away.  I am sure he can,  and you don't have to take my word for it,  he already has a contract,  so has been adjudged a very good player by people further up the judging tree than me.

The last game that I was advised to watch was between competition favourites,  The South Coast and Capricornia,  and they seemed to get a little bigger again,  the South Coast guys in any case.  Again the game was tight for a patch but the Gold Coast steamed away in the end.

Interesting the people there at this smorgasboard of talent.  More Broncos guys than you could poke a couple of sticks at,  Arthur Beetson from the Sydney Roosters,  dressed immaculately as you will see later.  Some North Qld guys and I am sure most NRL and some QRL clubs in attendance.  No rugby people but,  and surely given professionalism,  which code is played today is more to do with where one's future is best seen as being secured than any loyalty to any code.

Rugby would not have a programme to get these guys into and keep them playing,  which is what the league guys want,  kids playing footy,  and they have it all,  a strong school system,  a strong club system and a strong and developed elite pathway.  It's that structure thing again that I have talked about time and time again.

Arthur Beetson was there,  and while I feel words like legend and great are over used in sports terminology,  this guy was indeed a legend of the game of rugby league,  hailing from Roma,  I am not sure that we have ever seen another ball playing front row forward like this guy.  Used to love watching Artie play when I was a young bloke growing up.

 

 

I Missed 100% of the Shots I Didn't Take,  Michael Jordan.

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