‘They bypass the Titans’: Matty aims to stop junior player drain amid ownership stake
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Matty Johns’ main role after buying into the Titans is to stop the player drain from some of the best Gold Coast schoolboy rugby nurseries to rival NRL clubs.
“I’ve said to them (the Titans), anything I can help with at all just let me know … but the main area I’m going to get involved with is in and around the juniors,” Johns told
SEN’s The Run Home with Joel and Fletch.
“They have up there some of the most powerhouse rugby league schools but for whatever reason the kids get out of Year 12 and they bypass the Titans and they go elsewhere. That’s the area they’ve got to get right.”
“If I was going to throw myself into any coaching or anything, that’s what it’s going to be: in and around the juniors,” Johns said.
The Gold Coast is home to some of the best rugby league schools for producing NRL stars in Australia.
Keebra Park State High School and Palm Beach Currumbin State High School have featured in 10 of the past 17 national schoolboy finals and won seven of them.
However, that dominance at schoolboy level has not resulted in players signing with the Titans, who narrowly avoided the wooden spoon last season and are yet to win a premiership or make a Grand Final since joining the NRL in 2007.
Reigning national champions Keebra Park are based just 6km south of the Titans’ Parkwood headquarters, but signed a three-year exclusive affiliation agreement with the South Sydney Rabbitohs from 2024.
Keebra fielded 16 NRL contracted players in September’s national final victory but just
five of those players are signed to the Gold Coast Titans.
The other 11 players signed with the Rabbitohs, Broncos, Bulldogs, Storm, Dolphins, and Tigers.
“Everyone looks at the top end and thinks we’ve got to buy this bloke, buy that bloke, but the most important thing is they’ve got to get that base right and that junior structure right,” Johns said.
“They need the best kids in the area coming out of those powerhouse schools wanting to play for the Titans.”
www.titans.com.au
