Bears chasing NRL dream
NRL futures are knocking for a handful of Townsville region national champions.
The Kirwan State High School Bears, who triumphed against the odds to secure the NRL Schoolboys Cup national title last week, have eight players on the books with the North Queensland Cowboys.
Tyreece Woods, Hamiso Tabuai-fidow, Jeremiah Nanai, Daniel Buckland, Mia Pua’avase, Clay George, Ragsy Wavik and Adrian Trevilyan are signed with the Cowboys, and all are hopeful of following in the footsteps of other Kirwan students who enjoyed NRL careers.
Bears trainer and Kirwan teacher Nathan Norford, who is a former Cowboys under-20s player, is also a Cowboys academy coach.
“It’s a credit to the players, a credit to the school and the coaches there,” Cowboys recruitment manager Clint Zammit said.
“As long as the boys keep working hard they have plenty of opportunities ahead of them … it still takes a lot of hard work to get to that next level.”
Kirwan has produced a host of NRL players including Dally M medal winner Jason Taumalolo, Queensland and Australian star Sam Thaiday and Cowboys legend Aaron Payne.
But even they had no joy in the NRL National Cup, with their respective Kirwan Bears teams falling short of glory.
Zammit travelled to Sydney for last week’s schoolboys grand final, where Kirwan overcame an enormous size disadvantage against a hulking Westfields Sports High School outfit to win 16-10.
Kirwan earned their grand final berth after beating Wavell State High in the Queensland semi-finals 28-12 and Marsden State High 38-22 in the Queensland decider.
“They just kept getting stronger as the competition went on,” Zammit said.
“They built momentum and played some really good footy, and they received a lot of support from their school community.”
Trevilyan, who hails from the Burdekin, won the Peter Sterling Medal for player of the tournament and is one of the most highly rated footy talents coming through North Queensland.
Current NRL players including Payne Haas and Tom Dearden have won the medal, and Trevilyan hopes to carve out a similar path at the Cowboys.
“I’ve got to keep working hard, keep improving in some areas and I reckon I’ll have a real shot. But everyone else does, too,” he said.
“A lot of good people came before me and I’m really excited that I got (the medal).”