Nine current or past Gold Coast Titans NRL players go head-to-head in the big Intrust Super Cup derby between Ben Campbell Building Group Tweed Heads Seagulls and Burleigh Bears at Piggabeen Sports Complex on Saturday (1.10pm Qld time).
And with Titans members gaining free entry by producing their membership card, they get the chance to see some of the club’s brightest young stars in action, along with some of the Queensland Cup’s top talent.
A feature could be the clash of Tweed’s Kiah Cooper and fellow Titans full-time squad member Tyronne Roberts-Davis on the wing, as each aspires to follow in the footsteps of a famous cousin. Cooper’s cousin is Titans’ playmaker Ash Taylor while Roberts-Davis is cousin to Brisbane Broncos flyer James Roberts and Tyrone Roberts, now playing with Warrington in England.
Seagulls five-eighth Alexander Brimson partners former North Sydney half Eli Levido against Dallas Wells and ISC premiership winner Jamal Fogarty who cut his teeth on the NRL with the Titans. Brimson, who travelled to Auckland last weekend with the Gold Coast team that took on the Warriors, returns to strength the Seagulls.
Up front 18-year-old Titans star of the future, prop Moeaki Fotuaika who has been the Gulls’ best forward in the opening two rounds, will face the task of matching Bears’ hard-head prop Luke Page, the skipper who has been in fine form.
Another of the Titans’ many young squad members, lock Tony Matautia, is in the Seagulls pack while Jai Whitbread, one of four former Brisbane Broncos players who have returned home to the Coast to the Titans, will come off the bench for the Bears.
Then if we add former NRL regulars now with Burleigh in Sami Sauiluma, Jamie Dowling, Pat Politoni, Blake Leary and Matt Robinson, plus several former Titans under-20s players and seasoned ISC players like Sam Meskell, Lamar Liolevave (a Junior Kiwi), Sam Saville, Tristam Lumley, Alex Grant (all Seagulls) and Fogarty, Hayden Schwass, Kurtis Rowe, Henare Wells, Fogarty, Page and Josh Ailaomai (Bears) and it’s obvious fans will see a high-quality clash.
The under-18s clash kick-off at 9.50am, followed by the under-20s with the Gold Coast A-grade teams playing a trial match at 3pm (Qld time).
The teams:
Tweed Heads Seagulls
1. Alex Grant 2. Kiah Cooper 3. Ryland Jacobs 4. Brayden McGrady 5. Tevita Folau 6. AJ Brimson 7. Eli Levido 8. Tristan Lumley 21. Sam Meskell (c) 10. Moeaki Fotuaika 11. Lamar Manuel-Liolevave 12. Hiale Roycroft 13. Tony Matautia 15. Jordan Aiono-Fatu 18. Sam Saville 20. Jenan Parrish 22. Jarrod Morfett 14. Beau Cordtz 17. Kia Sands 19. Lindon McGrady
Burleigh Bears
1. Kurtis Rowe 2. Tyronne Roberts-Davis 3. Sami Sauiluma 4. Jamie Dowling 5. Henare Wells 6. Dallas Wells 7. Jamal Fogarty 8. Luke Page (c) 9. Pat Politoni 10. Dylan Kelly 11. Hayden Schwass 12. Blake Leary 13. Sam Coster 14. Jai Whitbread 15. Josh Ailaomai 16. Christopher Law 17. Matthew Robinson
