TWEED COUPS
COACH, CAPTAIN BACK FOR MORE
NEW deals for coach Ben Woolf and captain Cheyne Whitelaw will ensure Tweed Heads won’t be starting from scratch again next season.
The Seagulls made strides forward in the Intrust Super Cup this year, winning nine games plus a last-round draw in Cairns.
Woolf and Whitelaw were fresh faces at Piggabeen in 2018 but have been entrusted with the responsibility of leading the club for a second straight season after each signing one-year contract extensions.
“We were just a bunch of blokes thrown in a random team at the start of the year. No one knew Joe from blow,” Whitelaw said.
“It’s a building block and we are only going to get better each year and I want to be a part of that.”
Whitelaw said the club’s support after he suffered a season-ending knee injury – which the workhorse hopes will be fully recovered in time for Round 1 next year – confirmed his high opinion of the place. Now the next step for Tweed is to add some more quality to their roster to complement a solid group of youngsters and drive their finals hopes.
“It’s coming together slowly,” Woolf said of their 2019 list.
“I think we will retain most of the guys from this year’s squad which is a big positive. We have got a few other guys in the pipeline but nothing confirmed at this stage.”
Standout second-rower Toby Rudolf, who was man of the match in Redcliffe’s grand final win last Sunday, had signed with Tweed for 2019 but has since scored an NRL opportunity with Cronulla.
Whitelaw had been instrumental in persuading Rudolf to join the Seagulls and plans to be involved in their recruiting process.
“What we’re looking for is really good characters and then you can always teach that skill, as long they have a bit of punch or something about their game,” he said.
Those who won’t be returning include try-scoring machine Brayden McGrady (Penrith), utility Eli Levido (moved back to Sydney) and Ryan Simpkins (retired).
“We had a good, honest, hardworking group this year but when we lost Brayden McGrady, it probably stood out that we lacked that little bit of strike and x-factor about us. So it’s about making sure we can recruit someone in that space,” Woolf said.
“The big thing is improving on what we built on this year.” He added it was a nobrainer to retain Whitelaw as skipper.
“He’ll be the captain,” Woolf confirmed.
“He did a good job this year and it was obviously his first year at the club as well so we would be stupid to not put him in that position.”