Bond aims to keep Coast’s top talents
BOND University have launched a bold recruitment and retention strategy to keep the region’s top junior rugby talent playing on the Gold Coast.
For too long talented Gold Coasters, particularly from schoolboy powerhouse The Southport School, have migrated to Brisbane to advance their rugby careers in Queensland Premier Rugby.
Under the direction of head coach Grant Anderson, Bond have set about reversing that trend by offering locals the chance to instead represent their home region in Queensland’s top club competition.
Former TSS students from across the competition are flocking back to Bond and the effect on later generations is proving magnetic.
“There’s definitely more of a TSS flavour at Bond these days,” 2018 halfback Spencer Jeans said.
“A lot of the older boys in Prems are ex-TSS themselves so it makes it that little bit easier to step into it because the vibe is similar.
“We’ve got a huge amount of boys (from TSS) this year, I think five or six more than we did last year.
“That’s a huge bonus because that team morale and team chemistry is already there. That makes it so much easier when you’re playing with your mates.”
Bond have scored the entire starting tight five from the school’s 2019 GPS premiership-winning side and three members of the backline.
Director of rugby Luca Liussi said while the club’s focus was broader than just the Southport First XV, the impact their pre-existing combinations would bring could not be ignored.
“It’s massive,” Liussi said. “From whatever school they come from, they’ve been playing combinations of rugby together.
“The more they play footy together the easier it is, the more comfortable they are to talk to each other and pull each other up when something isn’t going right. The brotherhood they bring spreads throughout the club because they don’t just keep it to themselves.”
Props Zane Nonggorr and George Blake, locks Marlon Jones and Wilson Blyth, hooker George Nield, centre Jesse Grey, winger Hamish Roberts and fullback Dion Samuela have joined in 2020.
Nonggorr, Blake, Blyth, Roberts and Samuela are also part of the Reds Academy, alongside Spencer Jeans.
Hooker Jack Winchester is the final member of the Bond crew in the academy.