League new boy grabs his chance
BOYD Caulton, 15, had never played a competitive game of rugby league until about three months ago.
Now he could be a couple of games away from earning his first Queensland representative jumper.
The Mount Isa- born and Doomadgee- raised talent will travel to Cairns today as part of the Northern 15 years boys team to play the week- long Queensland Schoolboys Championships.
Caulton is among the first intake of students to live at the recently opened NRL Cowboys House and while he knows his dream of playing NRL is just beginning, he’s certainly on the right path.
Caulton is a student at rugby league nursery Kirwan State High School and is also part of the Cowboys academy system.
“I just thought if I play hard footy I might make it somewhere, so I’m really happy I made it with Northern,” said Caulton, who moved to Townsville from Doomadgee earlier this year.
“I didn’t play any real footy games at home.
“The coaches here ( at Kirwan) and my mates have been helping me out a lot.
“It’s always been a dream to play for Queensland.”
Caulton comes from a large family featuring two brothers and three sisters, most of whom now live in Mount Isa.
He plays club football in Townsville for Centrals Tigers and is most comfortable at fullback.
Kirwan High under- 15 coach Nathan Norford said Caulton had the raw talent to chase his NRL dream.
“He’s a player with tremendous talent and hopefully he can keep going and we’ll see how he goes at this carnival,” he said.
“It’s just great to see boys like Boyd get the opportunities they deserve because they probably don’t have that opportunity up north.
“Boyd’s grabbed his with two hands and done the best with it.
“The young kids can look to Boyd and say to themselves ‘ if he can do it, so can I’.
“He’s definitely a role model for those boys at Cowboys House and he’s a role model for the boys at our school as well.”