With young players becoming the staple of more and more NRL teams, the North Queensland Cowboys have moved quickly to shore up for potential, future stars – announcing that they have re-signed Sam Hoare until the end of the 2014 season, and Alex Elisala, Blake Leary and Felise Kaufusi, for the 2013 NRL season.
Elisala has been a mainstay in the Cowboys Toyota Cup side, amassing 60 games currently for the club, and is held in high regard by the coaching staff, evidenced by his training with the top squad for the last two weeks.
Both Hoare and Leary, although injured for the season, are both considered long-term options and future first-graders by the Cowboys coaching staff.
Both players, who are now ineligible for the Toyota Cup, had been playing with the Cowboys feeder team in the Queensland Cup, the Mackay Cutters.
Overall, for the Cowboys, they are impressed with the quartet, and are pleased to have re-signed four players for the future.
“We have a very high opinion of all four of them and expect that they will all challenge for NRL positions before too long,†Parr said.
“Both Sam and Felise are young front-rowers who will continue to benefit from being around the likes of Matthew Scott and James Tamou, while Alex has already shown that he fits in nicely during the training sessions he has had recently with the NRL squad.
“Blake has had an extra year out of the Toyota Cup and is probably a little bit further advanced with his career even though he missed a large chunk of last year with his knee injury.
“Without that setback, he may have already made his NRL debut.â€