Eastwood back where it began
NRL VETERAN RETURNS TO RUNAWAY BAY TO JOIN SEAGULLS
AFTER 242 NRL caps and 28 more for New Zealand, including a 2008 World Cup win, Greg Eastwood has come full circle.
The bustling backrower becomes Runaway Bay’s first big-name off-season signing, linking with the club that gave him his first taste of senior footy before the NRL came calling.
Eastwood played the bulk of his junior footy at Southport, before switching to Runaway Bay for a brief stint in the Under-19s and seniors while finishing school at Keebra Park.
From Keebra he signed to the Brisbane Broncos, making his NRL debut against Paramatta in round 26 of the 2005 season as an 18-year-old.
Three years later he started every game in New Zealand’s 2008 World Cupwinning run.
Two playing stints at Canterbury spanning nine seasons and 173 caps bookended a 2010 Super League campaign with Leeds Rhinos. His return to Bankstown lasted until 2018, when Eastwood retired from the NRL.
The 33-year-old joins the reigning Gold Coast Rugby League premiers via Intrust Super Premiership side Newtown Jets, whom he helped lead to an NRL State Championship win against Burleigh in 2019.
Like many, his 2020 plans were thwarted by COVID-19, but with a renewed lease on footy life and a return to his roots on the cards, Eastwood looms as a major get for the reigning premiers.
He and Seagulls coach Nick Gleeson played together at Helensvale State High School, before Eastwood was tapped for a swap to Keebra that was well deserved according to his former teammate and now coach. “Helensvale wasn’t known
being a rugby league
It was never good playing against too him – he was just you good. Anytime him got to play with was better than him playing against Nick Gleeson
school. Just the fact he was at Helensvale meant everyone was talking about Helensvale and how good these boys were,” Gleeson recalled.
“It was never good playing against him – he was just too good. Anytime you got to play with him was better than playing against him.
“As a kid Greg was big, he was strong, he was fast; he had all the talent in the world. Sometimes blokes don’t go on and make it, but for him to debut at 18 and spend the next decade playing professional footy is something a lot of us saw early on playing with him and against him.”
With the likes of Harrison Muller and Luke Burton exiting Runaway Bay in the offseason to link with Queensland Cup outfit Tweed Heads, Eastwood’s presence in the back-row will be crucial.
The club welcomed a host of Queensland Cup talent on to its books in 2020 when COVID-19 cut the state league season short at just one game.
That injection, coupled with the club’s already deep talent stocks, helped the Seagulls to an unbeaten campaign culminating in a 22-14 grand final win against the Burleigh Bears.
With the Queensland Cup set for a return this year, the club – and its Gold Coast Rugby League rivals – have endured something of a player exodus, including the likes of Muller and Burton.
“To be honest I’m very unsure of the make-up of the side right now,” Gleeson said.
“We’ve got six or seven of the first graders from that grand final side doing a Queensland Cup pre-season at Tweed. Then obviously
Guy Hamilton at Burleigh and we’ve lost one to Souths Logan and one to Easts Tigers.
“The Tweed guys, if they make it, good on them. I want to see our kids go off and play bigger and better footy.
“From a club perspective it’s great to see them try their hand at a higher level. If they make it great, if they don’t we’ll have them back.”
It is with generation next in mind that Gleeson is most excited about the addition of Eastwood.
With almost 300 games of professional rugby league experience, his intellectual property will be a great asset to the Seagulls off the field.
“Having someone like Greg, with the experience he has and what’s he’s done, being able to work with our kids for that period of time is probably more exciting for me,” Gleeson said. “Just having him come to the club and work with our group for the next 12 to 16 weeks in preseason and then the rest of the season – what he can teach is probably more exciting than anything else.
“He’s a pretty humble guy. He doesn’t talk too much. He’s not a guy who will lead training sessions, but he will lead from the front and is a guy the boys will be excited to train with, play and learn from as much as they can.”
But that is not to say Eastwood’s presence will not be felt – and welcomed – on the field either.
“He’s only 33 still. It’s not like he’s over the hill,” Gleeson said.
“He might have retired from the NRL two years ago but he’s been winning state league grand finals since. And like most Queensland Cup players he’s had the year off so he’ll be fresher.”
The reigning premiers are back in the throes of preseason preparations already ahead of an early May season start.
Gleeson said Eastwood would join the club in the next few weeks after getting his affairs in order down south.