By Tim Mosey

It’s hard to contain Ryan Schultz’s enthusiasm when you mention the club’s Elite Development Program.

The Rugby Manager at Brothers Rugby Club speaks with passion about the club and the program which is building and developing their young players.

“The program started five years ago when Colts manager at the time Glenn Rohrig and colts coach Ben McCormack decided to create a program that provided extra opportunities for identified colts players,” Schultz said.

“The aim of the program was to develop those players into Premier Grade players within one to three years.

“The program has certainly contributed to the depth we currently have at the club and has also contributed to our overall club success at the moment.”

“We believe our program is a point of difference to other clubs when we are looking to recruit the top school talent.”

The program has grown since its inception and enables players more than just on field development.

“We offer them an extra training session a week on top of the work they do with their specific team where we work on core skills.

“From an off field perspective we do a lot of goal setting, we introduce an action plan for where they want to go with their career, and we align them with a mentor within the Brothers network in an area they wish to pursue for work.”

“If they are studying accounting for example we put them in contact with a club connected accountant who is willing to help out and mentor the player.

Schultz emphasises it’s not all handouts for the players though.

“Though we engage with our players in this way, the onus is on the player to make contact with the mentor, not the other way around.

“They catch up for coffee and general communication around the industry, life and rugby. The player drives this relationship.

“We want to develop them as a person which will help them be better footballers and once they finish playing rugby they have something to move into.”

Since it was established the program has been well backed by Rohrig Construction and is delivered by Schultz, current colts coach Ben Travers and skills coach Kelevi Tuicolo.

Travers focuses solely on delivering the off field side of the program with Schulltz and Tuicolo work on the on field skill component.

Schultz has firmly established roles and responsibilities for those involved.

Everyone knows their place.

The coaches know what they are responsible for delivering and the players are given a performance tracker where they rate themselves from an overall rugby perspective.

They then sit with the skills coach and align the coaches ratings with theirs before coming up with a development plan for their on-field capabilities.

“This enables the players to buy into their own development,” Schultz explains.

“We break it into the technical, tactical, psychological and physical aspects of the game and give them specific direction based on what they believe they need to improve in.”

Brothers are experiencing one of their better seasons in recent years.

It wasn’t too long ago where they were struggling across a range of grades.

“We might have had an intake of 20 or so players per year, across the last five years,” said Schultz.

“So we have an additional say 60-80 players across that five year block who get to experience the club’s culture, buy in to the club’s culture and then contribute to the club’s culture.

“They move into playing grade footy ideally with premier grade, though we have graduates all the way through to the lower grades. All these players are driving the club culture and success as a result of their initial involvement in the program.

“We have had graduates right the way through our grade system into Super Rugby with Ben Hyne and Tom Moloney recent professional success stories.

“Actually before Hyney got a Super Rugby contract he finished his carpentry apprenticeship through Rohrig. That has set him up for his post rugby days.”

Brothers have a solid crop of young players coming through the Australian U20 side who have also been members of the Elite Development Program so far.

With the depth of young talent combining with older heads such as first grade skipper Luke Beauchamp and club stalwarts Nat Gendle and Dallan Murphy in reserve grade, over the next few seasons, Brothers seem to have a sustainable model for club success.

Already this season “The Filth” as they are known are on track to win the Doherty Shield as the best overall Brisbane Club through all grades and colts, men and women.

They want to earn their way into and win as many Grand Finals as possible and their ambition is to be the dominant club in the QLD Premier Rugby competition.

With the Elite Development Program underpinning their current club success, they may just be on the right track.