Maitland rugby league player Michael Gavin put on a Melbourne Storm jersey for the first time yesterday – and he liked it.
The 19 year old will like it a whole lot more when he travels south to join the dual defending champions of the premier national rugby league competitions in Australia for season 2010.
Gavin signed a one-year deal with the Storm’s under-20s National Youth Competition (NYC) squad yesterday, 45 days after the club took out the NYC and National Rugby League (NRL) premierships.
“They are a really good club,” Gavin said.
“What they have done down there over the past four years is amazing.
“It will be great to get the opportunity to go to a club like that and obviously they have good coaching.”
The Louth Park lad was also in negotiations with the Gold Coast Titans, but opted to head in the opposite direction.
Either way, Gavin had the chance to further his rugby league career and move towards his ultimate goal of playing in the NRL.
“It is something that every footballer wants to do, play at the highest level possible,” he said.
One Maitland product already doing that at the Storm is Gavin’s former Kurri Kurri Bulldogs team-mate Robbie Rochow, who was part of the Storm’s premiership winning NYC squad in 2009.
Gavin will reunite with the second-rower on Monday when training begins for the Storm.
“It will be good having Rob (Rochow) down there and knowing someone,” Gavin said.
But the journey to Melbourne means Gavin will wear purple rather than the familiar tri colours of the Kurri Kurri Bulldogs – a club he has been with since he was six.
“It will be the first time I have not played at Kurri in 14 seasons,” he said.
Gavin started his career with the Bulldogs in the under-7s and made his first grade debut as a 17-year-old in 2008.
He was a regular at fullback for the Bulldogs in 2009 and, surrounded by the likes of former Newcastle Knights stars Daniel Abraham, Reegan Tanner and Luke Quigley, was a major part of the red, white and blue’s surge towards the Newcastle Rugby League grand final.
The Bulldogs fell at the final hurdle, going down to eventual premiers the Wyong Roos in the preliminary final to finish third in what was the club’s first taste of semi-final football since 2000.
Gavin said he was proud to be part of that team and he thanked outgoing coach Shaun Collingwood for the chance to play top level rugby league in the region he grew up in.
“I owe a lot to Shaun (Collingwood) for
giving me the opportunity to play,” he said.
Gavin said that boost had helped his confidence on the paddock and now, after talks with the Storm throughout 2009, the former All Saints College student will make the 1030km shift southward.
Besides the distance the shift will also entail a positional change from fullback to five-eighth.
Gavin played a sprinkling of games at five-eighth for the Bulldogs earlier in the season but has played in the pivot’s role throughout his junior representative career with teams such as NSW Country, Newcastle Knights Harold Matthews and Maitland Schoolboys.
“I am looking forward to it,” he said.
“It suits my game and at fullback I have been playing a bit like a five-eighth anyway.
“I have been ball playing, kicking goals and kicking play so I won’t be playing much
differently to what I have been.
“The only difference will be more defensive work and a few more touches of the ball in each set of six.”
Gavin, who recently returned from a European tour with the NSW University’s squad, will also shift his commerce degree at the University of Newcastle to Melbourne – after completing his first year with an exam today – and his job with Westpac Bank to one of its southern branches.
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