Five members of Tweed Seagulls’ successful Mal Meninga Cup squad have been named as the inaugural male recipients of education and training scholarships under the Tom Searle Scholarship program announced last year.
It was appropriate that rugby league Immortal and Titans’ high-performance senior adviser Meninga was on hand to congratulate the scholarship winners Tom Weaver, Oskar Bryant, Jack Cullen, Ryan Foran and Jaylan De Groot at a luncheon at The Seagulls Club today.
All five players are under contract to the Titans as part of the astutely developed pathway program which sees many of the best talent from the Gold Coast, Tweed and Northern Rivers region being filtered into the NRL club’s program.
Former Titans and Queensland Maroons heroes Nate Myles and Ash Harrison were also present at the luncheon to discuss player development in the game as well as this year’s State of Origin series which began with the shock 50-6 thrashing of the Maroons in Townsville on Wednesday.
The previous winners of scholarships included four members of the Seagulls’ women’s side that competed in the statewide QRL competition. They are Australian representative Tarry Aiken, Queensland State of Origin second-rower Jessika Elliston, this year’s Maroons squad member Zara Canfield and NRLW Warriors captain and Kiwi Ferns representative Georgia Hale.
The program provided funding towards the players’ education and training and includes a 12-month gym membership at Seagulls.
It was launched in honor of Seagulls legend Tom Searle, who led the club as a player and/or coach to several premierships in the 1970s, represented NSW Country and had great success as a talent identifier and recruiter as the inaugural Titans recruitment officer.
Seagulls CEO Matt Francis, a close friend and colleague of Tom Searle who passed away last June, said it was an honour for the club to work with the Searle family in perpetuating the great legacy of Tom’s service to rugby league and in particular promoting young talent.
“As a life member of Seagulls, Tommy’s heart was always with the club and he would be delighted to see these five young players coming through the Seagulls’ rank and aspiring to play at the highest level,” said Francis.
“And he would be proud to know they have been identified by the Titans at this age. It was Tom’s passion to find and encourage young players and he identified and scouted so many of the Titans who came through the development ranks into the NRL during the club’s early days when his son Michael was CEO.”
Neil Cadigan
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