Bears lose Broadhurst for shot at big league
CONNOR Broadhurst is training overtime as he prepares for his long-awaited chance to secure an NRL deal.
The Burleigh premiershipwinning centre will head to Sydney to begin the NRL preseason with Penrith as part of an opportunity that will also see him switch Queensland Cup allegiances to Central Queensland. Broadhurst, 23, will have until Christmas to prove to Panthers supremos that he deserves a full preseason with the club, including trial matches.
If he can do that, he will be in with a real shot of making his dream of becoming an NRL full-timer a reality.
“I didn’t really want to leave Burleigh but the main goal has always been NRL,” he said.
“That’s my opportunity and I didn’t know if I could pass that up.”
Determined to make the best possible first impression, Broadhurst has been ripping into fitness training.
“These three weeks leading into it I should be getting right into it and then hopefully get down there and hit the ground running into the pre-season,” he said.
“I don’t really want to waste any time there trying to get a fitness base up.”
Broadhurst hails from the town of Baralaba and still has family based in Rockhampton, working well for his one-year link-up with the Capras.
The Central Queensland club recently cut ties with the Gold Coast to instead pen an agreement with the Panthers, with Broadhurst among their first success stories. Though he hopes to be donning Penrith colours, the thought of lining up against the Bears – who he had been with since 2015 – has crossed his mind.
“Yeah it will be weird playing against all my mates that I have been with for the last fair few years,” Broadhurst, once a Titans under-20 player, said.
“It will be interesting to say the least.”