RUGBY LEAGUE NEWS:
| Cowboys set up links with Fiji | ||
| Written by: North Queensland Cowboys Media | ||
| March 5th 2013 02:07 AM | ||
The North Queensland Toyota Cowboys will establish an academy program with their new sister club in Fiji after spending five days in the Pacific nation last week. Cowboys recruitment manager Adrian Thomson, player development manager Dean Payne and development officer Aaron Payne spent time at six schools in the Suva region as well as at two of the country’s league clubs, the Nausori Cowboys and Nakasi Cowboys. They also met with representatives of the Fiji Sports Commission and the Fiji National Rugby League. A set of jerseys were presented to the Nausori Cowboys who are now a sister club to North Queensland to help establish a career pathway for Fijian youngsters to further develop their skills and possibly progress to the NRL. It will be in the Nausori province, in conjunction with the Cowboys and local schools, that the academy will be formed when the NQ Cowboys delegation returns to Fiji later in the year. “We thought it was a very worthwhile few days,” Thomson said. “To our knowledge, no other NRL clubs has set up an academy in Fiji and it’s something we will definitely progress with. “We want to help develop the skills in the young footballers there, both on and off the field, and perhaps we can have someone turn into an NRL player for our club. “We ran a number of skills clinics while we were there and you can see the natural talent their youngsters have.” Nausori Cowboys official Ovalase Toduadua said a strong connection between the two clubs had already been built by talks leading up to last week’s visit and the visit itself. “We are so thankful to the Cowboys for their time to come and support us,” he told The Fiji Times. “We are so happy and blessed to have their presence with us and we hope this will continue in the future.” Formerly known as the Bulldogs, Nausori will play in the Fiji National Rugby League club competition that starts in May. |
