Winters-Chang named in Qld Under 20 Emerging Origin squad

Queensland Rugby League has named 28 players to be part of this year’s Queensland Under 20 Emerging Origin squad for 2020.

The squad features some exciting young talents, with four players making their NRL debuts this past season - Tanah Boyd (Gold Coast Titans), Xavier Coates (Brisbane Broncos), Tom Dearden (Brisbane Broncos) and Tino Fa’asuamaleaui (Melbourne Storm).

Coates was also QRL's XXXX Representative Player of the Year, Hamiso Tabuai–Fidow was the joint winner of the Auswide Bank Mal Meninga Cup Player of the Year award and Tom Gilbert was the Intrust Super Cup Rookie of the Year. 

The squad will meet for their camp, supported by the Queensland Academy of Sport, on the Sunshine Coast in late January.

QRL game development and high performance manager Joe McDermott said gathering the players in a group environment such as this was vital to ensure the next crop of players knew not only how to fulfil their roles in a team through effective preparation, but also helped to educate them on what it meant to represent Queensland.

“These camps are a key way for us to help foster team bonding where the players can create mateship which will last throughout their playing days and beyond,” McDermott said.

“We as the QRL and all the staff involved in the camps work hard to make sure the Maroons culture is ingrained in future talent.”   

The squad will be put through their paces by coach Ben Woolf, who has seen firsthand what many of the players can do, including Juwan Compain, Ioane Seiuli and Coates who he coached the Tweed Seagulls' Intrust Super Cup team this past year.

Queensland Under 20 Emerging Origin squad