Photo – QRU Media/Brendan Hertel

2019 went pretty well for Brothers fullback Lawson Creighton, who played his way into a Premier Rugby grand final and a Reds training contract over summer. 

But he didn’t end the year with a QLD Premier Rugby premiership and that’s something he’s desperate to change this season. 

Lawson featured in a Super Rugby preseason trial with the Reds earlier this year but has started to turn his attention to the upcoming Premier Rugby season. 

“It’s been a great preseason so far. I spent most of the summer with the Reds and then have been back at Brothers a bit more post Christmas,” he said. 

“From what I’ve seen at Brothers it looks really good. Numbers are good and all the boys are really ripping in. 

After falling 80 minutes short of what would have been close to a perfect season, Brothers have had a shuffle in their coaching ranks, with Rod Seib moving on to coach the Reds Academy and Ryan Shultz and Anthony Mathieson handed the reigns of the Brothers first grade side.  

“Schultzy spent a lot of time with Seiby so things haven’t really changed a great deal and Matho has coached at Brothers in the past as well so he knows the systems already,” Creighton said. 

“We’ve also got a pretty similar squad. We lost our tighthead prop Garrath Ryan, which is a pretty big loss but other than that most of the guys are back. 

“It’ll be good to get a few trials under the belt and see how we go.”

Creighton said it still hurt to look back on last year’s 31-26 grand final loss to UQ. 

“To be honest, we were just outplayed on the day. That Uni team was stacked with a few of their Reds boys – Hocko (Harry Hockings) literally played the lights out.

“They were always going to be tough to beat if they could scrape into the top four and on the day they played better than us, it’s as simple as that.”

Up until that point, things couldn’t have gone much better for the Filth in 2019. 

“We started the season really well and won our first ten or 11 straight. Then we started to slip a little bit. Earlier in the year we were starting games really well and setting up good leads but we didn’t do that as much at the back end of the season.”

“In the grand final, we just got too far behind and couldn’t chase them down. We fought back in the end, but it all came too late. 

“Straight after the game we made a pact to make sure that our change-room was never like that again because it was pretty shattering.”

On a personal front, Creighton’s 2019 club form saw him catch the attention of Red’s coach Brad Thorn and after getting a taste of Super Rugby, he desperately wants more. 

“It was fantastic to get that exposure and to train with those blokes,” he said. 

“Training alongside and under Brad Thorn was pretty intense and I think that’s what you need if you want to take it to the next level. The more I can get around that environment, the better off I’m going to be.

“I’m going to do everything I can to play Super Rugby and my goal for this season is to be contracted by the time Brothers are in the grand final.”