They are potential Titans of tomorrow; part of the club’s newly formed high performance unit of aspiring NRL players aged 15 to 18.
And they were brought into the inner sanctum at The Southport School for two days where they benefitted from an insight into how Neil Henry operates as an NRL head coach and their skills and fitness levels were recorded to see how they measured up.
“It was great to have the boys all together and get a good insight into where they are at,” said Titans elite player development manager, Jamie McCormack.
“The high performance unit caters for 25 contracted 15-18 year old; so the young guys earmarked as potential under-20s and NRL players.
“We conducted testing, screening by our physios, skin fold tests; just getting an overall picture of where they were at with performance, skill level and physical ability before the start of the 2015 season. They met Neil and his staff and watched the team train and met some of the players.
“There were given details of the overall program and what we expect them to achieve in the coming months, particularly in Mal Meninga Cup (under 18s) and Cyril Connell Shield (under 16) competitions. We gave them a weights and training program to take away and we’ll continue to monitor their progress.”
The full squad comes together every school holidays while the locally based players are brought in more regularly for specialist skills training. Most played in the Meninga Cup and Connell Shield competitions and some of the 18 year olds will be fast-tracked into the Holden Cup squad before season’s end.