Gun prop leads PBC bid to repeat 2008 title
A 16-YEAR-OLD machine already signed by the Broncos shapes as a decisive figure in Palm Beach Currumbin’s quest to clinch their first NRL Schoolboy Cup national championship in a decade.
Year 10 student Xavier Willison will start in the front-row against a giant Patrician Brothers Blacktown pack as the status of the country’s best school team goes on the line at 1.30pm today at Redcliffe.
Reds coach Aaron Zimmerle has challenged his team, who have won all nine of their games this year, to lift even further.
“We’re just going to be confident in our style of play which is based on skill, speed and fitness,” he said. “We have just got to believe what we do is more effective than what they do and we have to combat what they bring.
“We have to lift our own physicality to a level that we haven’t played at yet, not for 60 minutes, but that’s a great challenge.
“That’s what you want a national final to be, something that you play 10 per cent more than you have ever given.” Willison, who was hand-picked from New Zealand and moved across the ditch away from family to develop his game, is among the PBC engine room that must stand tall.
“We need him to be as dominant as the front-rowers and so forth that are coming from Blacktown that are representative level players,” Zimmerle said.
Not only does Willison boast an imposing figure of 194cm and 102kg, he has tremendous fitness not ordinarily associated with a prop.
He placed eighth in the school’s under-16 cross-country and earned selection to run at district level.
Willison idolises Tevita Pangai Junior and is on the fast track to one day be lining up alongside him in Broncos colours.
“My dream is to become an NRL player,” he said.
“It’s been pretty hard this year, a lot of people bigger and stronger than me but I have still got a couple more years to grow.”
Those last 10 words alone are a scary prospect.
PBC will be without suspended fullback Glenn McGrady for the final, which is the first to be held in Queensland. Fellow Gold Coast team Keebra Park won the national decider last year.