Steve’s league life
Meet the man who sparked a drastic change in Coast rugby league. Nic Darveniza writes.
PRIOR to 1997, a handful of volunteers from the Gold Coast Junior Rugby League managed some 3000 footballers from Beaudesert to Murwillumbah using only a typewriter and a fax machine.
When Steve Pollock was named president that year the body underwent the single greatest period of innovation since formation in 1976.
Mobiles and computers were introduced to the management team, helping administrators facilitate an explosion of talent that would climb the NRL ranks.
After six seasons in the role, Pollock was awarded life membership of the RLGC.
YOUNG TALENT TIME
“It was pretty exciting, back in the early days,” the decorated volunteer, 65, said.
“You’d start watching young blokes from age 11 or 12 and watch them progress right up to NRL standard.
“We had 3000 kids playing and you probably knew 85 per cent of them.”
It’s tough to narrow down a list of the finest junior footballers he saw emerge from the GCJRL ranks but a few did stick out.
“One of them was Kevin Kingston, who played for Cronulla and Parramatta and Penrith,” he said.
“Darius Boyd, Steve Michaels, Jamahl Lolesi … Benji Marshall, who was running around there for a while.
“I used to coach Ben Hannant’s older brother so I got to know his family.
“Because of religion Ben couldn’t play representative football so I rang up his dad and told him he was a chance to make the Queensland under-17s but he had to play (at the trials) on the Sunday.
“He rang back a few days later and said they’d allow him to play this time, and he kept on going right through.”
CREATIVE SOLUTIONS
Over Pollock’s tenure the management of parents became an art form, with creative thinking to tackle the issue of sideline abuse of referees one high point.
To curb the problem, the president orchestrated a sponsorship from Cadbury to supply lollipops to GCJRL crowd controllers.
When fans started to lose their cool an official would appear with a lollipop to give the irate party something other to do with their mouths than hurl abuse. The venture lasted a season but proved a hit with junior referees.
NRL PATHWAYS
One of the hardest parts of the role was watching a generation of Coast talent make names at rival NRL clubs.
“With all our local juniors and how well the competition is run, and the two schools in Keebra and Palm Beach Currumbin, the talent on the Gold Coast is remarkable,” Pollock said. “I can’t understand why (the Titans) haven’t been successful.
“You can only keep so many but the tragedy of players who have left and went on to NRL is amazing.
“That’s where they have to turn it around because you can’t keep buying players.
“You look at (bringing in) Jarryd Hayne when Payne Haas and Dave Fifita were right under their noses.
“Players like that should never, ever leave the district.”
Until the Titans establish themselves as an attractive destination for young footballers, Pollock fears the Broncos will keep siphoning away the best young talent.
With all our local juniors and how well the competition is run, and the two schools ... the talent on the Gold Coast is remarkable