Redbacks’ second bite at RLGC title
AN AIR of intrigue surrounds Mudgeeraba as the rugby league world wonders whether the Redbacks can recapture the surprising form of last year’s maiden foray into the Rugby League Gold Coast A-Grade competition.
Bolstered by a handful of Intrust Super Cup players the Redbacks sparkled on debut – the big scalp of reigning premiers Burleigh in Round 4 signalling they weren’t just there to make up the numbers.
A semi-final exit ended the Redbacks’ exciting run and now all eyes are on coach Wayne Forbes and his retooled squad as they enter
their sophomore season.
One man not ready to rest on last year’s laurels is Mudgeeraba forward Jesse Malcolm-Dinsdale.
The 2018 premiership winner with Runaway Bay joined the Redbacks for the club’s AGrade debut but was admittedly below his best.
The burly back-rower with a burgeoning Benji Marshall step – watch for it – shed 7kg in the off-season, vowing to get back to the 80-minute standard he set in years past.
He knows this Redbacks team has all the tools to go to the top and wants to play a key role in getting there.
“COVID did me real dirty. Once training stopped through that period I put on a
bit of weight and found it hard to strip it back off again during the season,” MalcolmDinsdale said.
“This year I’ve shred back a bit – and there’s still a bit more for me to lose, hopefully by the middle of the season at least.”
The jovial forward’s vehicle for change was a sombre one. He stripped much of the weight training for the Mooloolaba Triathlon – his first such fitness challenge, dedicated to three-year-old Gold Coast girl Luna Matenga who died in December last year after being struck by a car.
“One of my good friends, his daughter passed over Christmas. We started training for a triathlon and dedicated
it to her – we called it the Luna-thon,” MalcolmDinsdale said.
“Training for the triathlon I ended up losing six or seven kilos, which was a positive to come from it.”
Returning to footy talk, Malcolm-Dinsdale circled Round 3 as the benchmark for a return to his best.
He rejoins a Redbacks pack that could well be the biggest in the competition, headed by double-trouble best mates Trevino Botham (120kg) and Jackson Gisinger (130kg).
“Those units? Those two alone are the biggest in the comp,” he joked.
“And they’re young too. They feed off our experience
and with a bit of confidence they’ll just take off. They’re not shy of the contact either which is good.”
Malcolm-Dinsdale is ready for Runaway Bay on Sunday – a date with his former club the perfect start to a new campaign, he says.
One man who won’t be playing Round 1 is livewire fullback Kyle Williams.
The speedster has only just been given the all-clear to return to swimming and cycling duties as he works his way back from a bulging disc in his neck that threatened to end his footy career.
“Killer” – Malcolm-Dinsdale’s nickname for him – will be sidelined until at least Round 5.