Titans nab teen off Eels
PBC and NSW hooker commits future to Coast
THE Titans Elite Development System (TEDS) has secured another big win for the Gold Coast NRL club’s future in the form of outstanding young hooker Jed Edwards.
The Titans launched their multimillion-dollar program in November to ensure they had the appropriate system to bring through the region’s talent and first struck gold when they signed Australian Schoolboys second-rower Juwan Compain from the Broncos. While that was the trumpeted recruitment at the time, Compain’s 2018 NRL Schoolboy Cup-winning Palm Beach Currumbin teammate Edwards flew under the radar in joining his hometown team a couple of months later.
The 17-year-old from Mullumbimby had been under contract at Parramatta until the end of this year but said the lure of being a Titan was too good to refuse.
“The Titans sort of came to me at the end of last year and just put the offer on the table if I wanted to come into their new TEDS program that they are running there and it was something that I was really keen on and wanted to jump in straightaway,” he said.
“I asked for a release from Parramatta; it took a while but I finally got one and I was able to sign with the Titans on a two-year deal at the start of this year.”
Edwards, a NSW under-16 representative in 2017, said linking with mates at Gold Coast was a major attraction.
The club will no doubt hope it is for other boom talents such as Toby Sexton (Bulldogs) or even Broncos rising star Tom Dearden as well.
“Juwan is there and Will Evans and a handful of those boys that I’ve played football with since a young age,” he said.
“That was obviously super appealing to train hard with those lads and to keep playing footy with them.”
Edwards is on the comeback trail from a broken arm as he prepares for his final year of schoolboy footy at PBC.