(Thanks to QT, Joel Gould & Rob Williams)<\/p>\n
A DIRECT pathway for Ipswich footballers has been established after an historic partnership between the Brisbane Broncos and the Ipswich junior and senior leagues was formalised yesterday.<\/p>\n
The Ipswich Jets, Ipswich Rugby League (IRL) and Ipswich Junior Rugby League (IJRL) have agreed to a three-year partnership with the NRL powerhouse.<\/p>\n
Broncos greats and former Ipswich juniors Allan Langer and Kerrod Walters were on hand at the Jets Leagues Club yesterday to celebrate the relationship.<\/p>\n
Jets CEO Brad Wolens has hailed the partnership as a massive coup for rugby league in the city and a great boost to young Ipswich footballers who can now stay in their home environment, play with local teams and have a clearly defined pathway to the top with one of the NRL’s great clubs.<\/p>\n
The Jets have had feeder club relationships with the Raiders, Rabbitohs and Titans in the past while the juniors have just completed an association with the Roosters.<\/p>\n
“But this is the first time in history that all three Ipswich league bodies have been under the one umbrella,” Mr Wolens said. “We have 3500 juniors and a lot of them have been leaving Ipswich. But now we have a pathway between the Ipswich juniors, seniors and ourselves to the Broncos there is no need for them to leave the area.<\/p>\n
“We’ve had a lot pf players signed by the Broncos in the past who have then played with their other feeder teams such as Wynnum-Manly, Redcliffe or Norths.<\/p>\n
“Now they can live at home, have that stability in their family life and play football in their local area while being dual-signed with the Broncos. Any of our players who are signed by Brisbane will now be dual-registered with the Broncos and Jets.<\/p>\n
“Having our former players like Alfie and Kerrod here shows we’ve always had a natural pathway to the Broncos.”<\/p>\n
Langer said there was “a lot of great support for the Broncos in Ipswich”.<\/p>\n
“When I left the Jets to go the Broncos it was just around the corner,” he said.<\/p>\n
“Kids out here can now play in their own backyard and if they want to go further they can also go just down the road and play for the Broncos.<\/p>\n
“They have something to strive for and look forward to now.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"featured_media":3960,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0},"categories":[],"post_layout":[],"class_list":["post-2145","club_news","type-club_news","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/ipswichjets.com\/api\/wp\/v2\/club_news\/2145","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/ipswichjets.com\/api\/wp\/v2\/club_news"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/ipswichjets.com\/api\/wp\/v2\/types\/club_news"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ipswichjets.com\/api\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2145"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/ipswichjets.com\/api\/wp\/v2\/club_news\/2145\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ipswichjets.com\/api\/wp\/v2\/media\/3960"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/ipswichjets.com\/api\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2145"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ipswichjets.com\/api\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2145"},{"taxonomy":"post_layout","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ipswichjets.com\/api\/wp\/v2\/post_layout?post=2145"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}