Homegrown hot shots
JAMAL Fogarty and Kurtis Rowe grew up playing against each other in the Gold Coast Junior Rugby League competition.
Tomorrow, they will together strive to make Burleigh national champions.
Homegrown Beaudesert Kingfishers talent Fogarty recalls playing against Rowe way back in under-15s.
The latter, born in Tara- naki on New Zealand’s North Island, had just moved across the ditch and was playing for Southport Tigers.
The duo, both 22, are part of a strong Gold Coast contingent in the all-conquering Bears squad, joining Hayden Schwass (Mudgeeraba), Cameron Cullen (Tweed Coast), Olly Regan (Ballina) and Burleigh’s own Jamie Dowling.
“I played against Kurty Rowe when he was at Southport,” Fogarty said.
“I played against him a fair bit but obviously I didn’t play against Cullo and Olly because they were in the NSW comp and Schwassy is a bit younger than me.”
Fogarty and Rowe didn’t take long to team up, rising to become Australian Schoolboys teammates in 2011, playing alongside future NRL stars David Klemmer, Kane Elgey and Jake Trbojevic in the process.
“Me and Kurtis, we actually played South Coast, Queensland and Australian Schoolboys together in the one year,” Fogarty said. “That’s when we sort of met up with each other. He was fullback for our South Coast and Queensland team and we were both lucky enough to get picked in the Aussie team that toured New Zealand.”
Bears coach Jimmy Lenihan said the club had made – and will continue to make – a specific effort to recruit Gold Coast-raised footballers.
“There’s a lot of Coast players that go down to Sydney clubs all the time as young blokes ... it’s a wonder- ful opportunity to get blokes as they come back from NSW,” he said.
While it can be a daunting move for someone foreign to the Coast to join the Bears, Lenihan said the likes of Rowe – who returned to the region after coming through the Wests Tigers system – often proved a better fit.
“They’ve got family here on the Coast so their support structures are always sort of half done,” he said.
“The biggest part of that is making people feel comfort- able and happy where they are. Once you have that sort of ground base, it’s very easy for them to then settle in. So it’s a bit of a practice of our retention to always look at those sort of kids that are offcontract to come to us and see what their opportunities are and if it’s something that we can work out.
“There’s probably more chance of those blokes staying at Burleigh than blokes that aren’t from this area then get homesick and go back to where they are from.”