dodge said:
BRISBANE BRONCOS
all QLD unless stated
Don't know what the outcome of this is.
http://www.broncos.com.au/index.cfm?TopMenuID=266&MenuID=296&NewsID=1290
Tom is a Maroon
by
Wayne Heming
Wednesday February 09, 2005
Source: AAP
Queensland rugby league officials have moved to clear the decks for teenaged Broncos giant Tom Learoyd-Lahrs to play State of Origin for the Maroons.
A former schoolboy athletics champion whose training times put him alongside some of the Broncos backs, his physique has already been compared to Bulldog destroyer, Sonny Bill Williams.
NSW could lay claim to the 192cm, 111kg back-rower -- a former Australian schoolboy star -- who trimmed seven kilos during the off-season in a bid to hit the ground running in 2005. He was born in Tweed Heads but moved to Queensland with his family when he was four and then to NSW (Tamworth) to attend boarding school when he was 12.
QRL managing director Ross Livermore says the Australian Rugby League board has already been put on notice that Learoyd-Lahrs wants to play for Queensland.
"I've raised it with them (ARL) and there's been no great objection to it," said Livermore.
"They (NSW) could claim him, but what's the good of them arguing when they've got four billion players to choose from, and the kids wants to play for Queensland anyway. He considers himself a Queenslander."
Learoyd-Lahrs, who has spoken to his club coach Wayne Bennett about Origin, said he'd be very keen to play for Queensland if the opportunity ever came along.
"If I ever got that call, I'd jump over the moon," he said.
"It's probably a long way down the track - if ever -because I have not even cemented a place in the Broncos squad yet. But people have said I should declare my hand and let them know which way I'm headed, so that's what I have done."
Learoyd-Lahrs, 19, played his junior football at Werris Creek in NSW and represented NSW under 19s when he was just 17. His mother, Theresa, trained racehorses on the Gold Coast while his father, Michael Lahrs, still lives in Ingham in north Queensland.
"I was born over the border but I played a lot of football up here and down south and my first senior game was with the Toowoomba Clydesdales," said Learoyd-Lahrs.
Origin eligibility has been challenged many times. It still mystifies many Queenslanders how NSW procured brilliant Bundaberg-born winger Ken Nagas who played one game south of the border.
