Tigers begin new era with a return to grassroots approach
A new dawn is on the horizon at Southport.
Despite the change, president Scott Mulligan believes the Tigers’ success will remain unwavering.
When Rugby League Gold Coast’s teams were named ahead of round one, Southport’s had just 26 points under the new player points system. It was the lowest total in the RLGC A-grade competition, and surprised many.
Mulligan noted his squad has undergone a stark overhaul, and said the Tigers’ round one side this time last year would have been around the
120-point mark. It was a team packed to the brim with NRL talent.
“If you look at (last year’s) team … to the team that we have here, there’s experience there but guys who have had a long time away from the game or who have gone to play rugby union, so they come back to bare minimum points which is good,” Mulligan said.
He also noted that former juniors had returned, helping to further lower the points total.
“We picked players that we want to keep and then we built the team around them, we didn’t go searching for a whole team,” Mulligan said.
“We have players that have played Q Cup but haven’t played more than the five or six that’s a requirement, we have blokes who are good enough but have never got that chance, we’re making the most of it by bringing them in and giving them a crack at Southport.”
The club will also be without the financial backing of powerful businessman and politician Clive Palmer.
“We’re just bringing the culture back and starting that new era,” Mulligan said.
“We went back to the drawing board and … just built what we have to, there were massive pay cuts, 100 per cent, but I guess the boys want to play football and they play because they love it and they love the club.”
The Tigers have begun their 2024 campaign strongly, downing Burleigh 34-4 in their first hitout. They will host Runaway Bay in round three on Sunday.
The prospect of a three-peat with former NRL and Australian representative Greg Bird at the helm excites Mulligan, but the club has taken a holistic approach ahead of the season.
“It’s about rebuilding and actually getting out juniors cemented in the club, because I think we lost that … we lost a lot of people because there were so many high-style players,” he said.
“Having EX-NRL players pushed the local boys out or they ended up playing ressies.
“Our goal is to keep breeding our juniors.”