Teen spirit for Cowboys
Region’s best in Young Guns squad
THE best young crop of North Queensland rugby league players will start on the path to the NRL next month in the Cowboys Young Guns program.
The program, which brings together a squad of teenagers that the Cowboys have identified as future NRL talent, will be overseen by the club’s elite pathways manager Ben Jefferies.
The squad of about 20 players has been selected and includes Kirwan High state championship winners Ragsy Wavik, Tyreece Woods and Cruz Smith as well as Blackhawks under-20s stars Morgan Mcwhirter and Jake Bourke.
Brothers’ halfback Thomas Chester also earned a call-up to the side after impressing in the side’s run to the Mackay Rugby League grand final this season.
The squad will undergo rigorous training which will include two sessions every weekday as well as sporadic weekend ones.
The Young Guns will also have the opportunity to run opposed sessions with the Cowboys NRL squad, in a move which Cowboys head of football Micheal Luck believes will be beneficial on both sides of the field.
“(The program) will be high intensity. That is the purpose of it, to get them right and get them into the shape they are required to be in to compete at the elite level.
“Being our first graders of the future, the principles by which they train will be the same principles instilled by (Cowboys coach Todd Payten).
“We have designs on having whole club sessions, to do things as a group which will is important culturally for the club. It gives (the first grade) guys scope to develop their leadership styles and mentoring skills. It is not every day they will do it, but we want to do it as much as we can.”
Luck said the Cowboys had left their junior development in the hands of their feeder clubs in recent seasons, but it was time to bring them back under the club’s roof.
Incoming Cowboys coach Payten said development of North Queensland’s juniors was crucial for the club’s future success.
While he will have influence over the back end of the program, Payten said his ‘hands on’ involvement would be minimal with Glenn Hall and Jefferies to lead the delivery.
“Hally, Ben Jefferies have run me through their thoughts on the program so far and we are going to sit down (this week) and they will run me through the program itself,” Payten said.
“They have had some good ideas and I like what they have expressed to me. Us, as a development club, it is vital we get that pathways structure right.”