Tweed’s last shot as high road calls
TWEED Heads could be just 80 minutes from the end of their Rugby League Gold Coast days after confirming they will exit the competition in a bid to become a true representative club for the region.
The Seagulls board has given the green light to a restructure that will focus their attention on three teams – Intrust Super Cup, under-20 and under-18 – in a model similar to many of their ISC rivals.
It means the ongoing RLGC finals series is their last shot at an A-grade premiership, with the Kevin Campion-coached side to play inform Tugun next week after losing 37-16 to Runaway Bay yesterday.
The topic has been hotly debated internally but Seagulls chief executive Paul Stephenson is confident their change in approach is the best way forward.
“We want to field genuine representative teams for our area,” he said.
“We’re almost contradicting what we are trying to do by having an A-grade team in the local comp because we want to work with the local clubs, not against them, to develop talent.”
Stephenson feels there will be benefits from spreading players surplus to their ISC top 17 through the Gold Coast league, as they had already started to do with teams such as Southport this year
“We have the ability to attract talent to our area and what happens to that talent if they are not going to play Queensland Cup is we get the opportunity to show that talent amongst the local clubs,” he said.
“And on the flipside of that, it’s an opportunity for the local clubs to develop and promote their talent as well – and the hope is that they want to do that because we’re not competing against them.”
The flow-on effect of Tweed’s move is that a new team is likely to be added to the 2019 A-grade competition, with Mudgeeraba and Helensvale the prime candidates.
As for the current playoff series, Bay’s second win over Tweed at Bycroft Oval in the space of a week – driven by Jake Powell’s 20-point haul – puts them through to the grand final qualifier against Currumbin.
The end of the ISC regular season meanwhile could provide a timely boost for Tweed as they enter sudden death against Tugun.