Iggy ’22 brimful of class
THE North Queensland rugby league production factory that put Michael Morgan, Scott Prince and Valentine Holmes on the path to the NRL believes its Class of 2022 could be the school’s best yet.
Ignatius Park College’s alumni list is glittering, with Origin players Kalyn Ponga, Danny Moore, Kyle Feldt, Coen Hess and Aidan Guerra among the best to emerge from its Townsville halls in recent years.
For all its development success Iggy Park has never progressed past the national schoolboys quarter-finals.
School officials believe this year’s crop of students has what it takes to surpass the best teams in the College’s rich history. “Definitely,” declared Steve Lansley, in his seventh campaign as head coach.
“The fact that we only let in two tries for the week (at the Confraternity Carnival) says that this is a really strong group of football players.”
Ignatius Park dominated June’s independent schools carnival, scoring 196 points and conceding 10 on an undefeated run which included a 32-0 defeat of St Patrick’s College, Mackay in the Shield final.
Co-captain Jamal Shibasaki, a 100kg-plus lock who will follow in the footsteps of elder brother Gehamat to the Brisbane Broncos upon graduation, believes his teammates can live up to the standards of the great Ignatius Park teams of the past.
“100 per cent. Living up to those standards would be good,” Shibasaki said.
“There will be ups and downs throughout the year but like Lansley said, we have the team to achieve those goals.
“There’s a bit of pressure but yeah, I’m very confident with the team we have, especially coming off the Confro win. With our team chemistry and bonding I feel very confident.”
The Cowboys have signed four students in prop Henry Teutau, backrower Jonah Raidaveta, halfback Matthew Hunter and flying winger Tekelu Mene, while the Broncos have Shibasaki.
Shibasaki expects more of his teammates to sign professional contracts after their dominant Confraternity campaign. “They’ve definitely been looked at,” Shibasaki said.
“They’re not contracted but they are exceptional players. I think our forward pack, even the players who aren’t signed, did really well.”
No.7 Hunter, Ignatius Park’s other co-captain, said it would take even greater focus to turn a promising start to the 2022 season into one for the history books.
“It’d be hard to beat (the old teams), we’ve had many, many talents in the old boys, but I believe we could go through the Aaron Payne Cup and hopefully make some national finals,” Hunter said.
“It all comes down to training and readjusting our focus. The boys won’t get ahead of themselves.”