MATES’ BATTLE IS FAR FROM HALF-HEARTED
PBC CONNECTION LIGHTS UP CONTEST
THEY helped steer Palm Beach Currumbin State High School to a Queensland Schoolboys rugby league title in 2011 and now Jamal Fogarty and Jahrome Hughes will go head-to-head as the starting halfbacks on rival NRL teams. Fogarty will wear the No.7 for the Titans while Hughes will do the same for the Melbourne Storm on the Sunshine Coast on Friday night.
JAMAL Fogarty and Jahrome Hughes were like yin and yang at the Gold Coast’s famous Palm Beach Currumbin State High School in 2011.
Neither wore the No.7 jersey for school but nine years later PBC’s odd couple will find themselves head-to-head on the NRL stage, opposing halfbacks for the first time.
It’s been an eventful decade for both the Indigenous kid from Beaudesert and the Maori boy from Wellington, who together powered PBC to the 2011 Queensland title from five-eighth and fullback respectively. On the field they could scarcely be further apart. In the 2011 state decider Hughes scored the game’s opening try against Keebra Park with a 105-metre runaway. The fullback fancied himself as a ballplayer but he didn’t pass once from tryline to tryline.
Fogarty was the organiser who passed and passed and passed.
“There was no jealousy there, no ‘I’m better than you’,” their coach Phil Sunderland said of their sparkling schoolboy connection.
“Both of them were incredible young men, humble, quiet, unassuming. They were like that here and they’re still the same respectful young men.”
Their paths to Friday night’s blockbuster between the Storm and Titans at Sunshine Coast Stadium have been difficult as well.
Hughes signed with the Roosters, then Titans, the Cowboys and in 2017 the Storm where he played 44 NRL matches. Fogarty had to wait until 2017 for his first NRL game with the Titans and even longer to lock down his starting jersey this year.
Both have served their apprenticeships and have emerged stronger for it, their old coach said.
“Jahrome has learned to channel his brilliance where it best fits,” Sutherland said.
“He still plays a little off the cuff despite the Storm’s structure.
“Jamal is doing a great job getting the Titans around the park. It’s hard for oppositions to work him out because he’s always popping up in new places.”
Their friendships will be left on the sideline when battle begins, and Fogarty vowed he wouldn’t shirk a chance to let his old mate feel the sting.
“It’s been a while since we were teammates and his game has developed a lot since we were at school together,” the Titans halfback said.
“If he gives me the opportunity to tackle him I’m going to tackle him.
“I’m sure he’ll do the same for me as well.”