Central Coast Centurions

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For proposed NRL club, see Central Coast Bears.
Central Coast Centurions
Club information
Full name Central Coast Centurions
Nickname(s) Centurions
Short name Central Coast
Colours      Sky blue
     Yellow
     White
Founded 2005
Departed 2011
Former details
Ground(s) Morrie Breen Oval
CEO(s) Brian Waldron
Coach(s) Rip Taylor
Captain(s) Joel Edwards
Competition New South Wales Cup

The Central Coast Centurions were an Australian rugby league football club (previously known as the Rip or Storm) based in the Central Coast region in New South Wales. They competed in the New South Wales Cup.

History

Rip (2005-2006)

The club was founded as the Central Coast Rip in 2005 and competed in the S. G. Ball Cup, Harold Matthews Cup and Jersey Flegg Cup. The players were a mix of talent from the local Central Coast Division of Country Rugby League - Group 12 Competition. At the end of the 2006 season and without a finals appearance in any of the competitions the Rip entered, the club was bought-out by the Melbourne Storm who turned the Central-Coast based club into their main-feeder team.

Storm (2007-2009)

In 2007 the Central Coast Storm, now a packed side with both local and interstate talent (courtesy of the Melbourne Storm's Victorian based junior's program) began to run a side in the New South Wales Cup, acting as the Storm's feeder club.[1] Along with the new and major support from the Storm, the team received sponsorship from the private health company, Medibank Private for the next 3 seasons. Part of this sponsorship included more sponsorship of the actual local district competitions.[2]

The team's first season in the New South Wales Cup in 2008 ended unsuccessfully, they did not reach the finals and finished in a disappointing 10th place. The team however was able to reveal some notable talent for the Melbourne Storm including promising prop, Aiden Tolman who later graduated to the first team towards the end of the 2008 season. Future first-graders for the Storm who grew their talent at Central Coast included Sinbad Kali, Kevin Proctor and Matt Duffie with the later two contributing to Melbourne Storm's clinching of the 2009 Toyota National Youth Competition.

The 2009 season would end up being the final season for the Central Coast Storm before they were to wound-up by the Melbourne Storm. Their final season however, turned out to be their most successful. Throughout the season, the team was always both consistent and also a very attacking football-team. This culminated with the Storm finishing a very credible 2nd place behind the Canterbury-Bankstown Bulldogs-feeder team, the Bankstown City Bulls. The team's first finals appearance turned out to be a shocker. The team went against the 7th-placed Western Suburbs in the first-week of the finals. A win would have seen the Central Coast Storm one win away from their first ever Grand Final appearance, however, in front of their home supporters, the team was trounced by the Magpies and by the end of the 80 minutes, the scoreline read an astonishing 68-4 in what was the shock result of the week by far.[3] Instead, the Storm in the Semi-Finals faced the Balmain Tigers at Leichhardt Oval in what proved to be the clubs final game of their short 4-year history. The Storm attempted to trample a Tigers side who would eventually reach the Grand Final of the competition. With the side missing the likes of Kevin Proctor, Brian Lima, Ryan Tandy as well a host of other regulars, the team went in understrength, very much similar to the game against Western Suburbs and as such went down in a surprisingly tight-encounter, 24-18 with the Storm coming back in the 2nd half. The loss meant this was the Storm's final game as they were eliminated from the finals after a very successful Home/Away season.[4]

With the season over, the Melbourne Storm officially announced its intentions to pull-out from the Central Coast after 3 seasons of both success and failure at the ever-expanding region. The Storm instead released to the media that it will now instead field a side in the NSW Cup based wholly and solely in Melbourne. As such, the team will be named exactly like the first-grade team, Melbourne Storm. As a replacement to the now-defunct Storm, Greg Florimo, the CEO of the North Sydney Bears and head of the expansion consortium of the Central Coast Bears, announced their intentions to field their own side based entirely out of the Central Coast. The side was originally to be known as the Central Coast Cubs (as a reference to the ties to the Bears) but the moniker was changed to Centurions after gaining support from the Newcastle Knights.[5]

Centurions (2010-2011)

The Centurions acted as a feeder club to the NRL club Newcastle Knights.[6] They started the season well with a 28-18 win against the Canterbury-Bankstown Bulldogs at the Crest Sports Complex in Round 1, but then had a horror run through the middle of the season with 13 losses and 4 wins.

Some notable players in the squad are Chris Adams, Joel Edwards, Marvin Filipo, Sinbad Kali, Marvin Karawana, Siuatonga Likiliki, Keith Lulia, Peter Mata'utia, Shannon McDonnell, Constantine Mika, Kevin Naiqama, Kyle O'Donnell, Ben Rogers, Steve Southern, Ryan Stig, Zane Tetevano and Simon Williams. The Centurions coach Rip Taylor was selected to coach alongside Jason Taylor as the assistrant coach of the NSW Residents on the 7th of July 2010 against the Queensland residents before game III of the 2010 State of Origin series at ANZ Stadium. Centurions winger Kevin Naiqama was also in the NSW team and scored the game-breaking try. NSW went on to win the game.

Centre Marvin Filipo was named the Centurions player of the year in 2010, Steve Southern in 2011.

Demise

During October 2011, it was announced that the Centurions wouldn't be continuing in 2012, with the team to become named the Newcastle Knights in the NSW Cup competition from now on.

Players

References

  1. ↑ deKroo, Karl (October 19, 2006). "Storm make impact on Coast". Herald Sun (Melbourne: News Limited). 
  2. ↑ O'Neill, Matthew (May 21, 2008). "Storm to visit every Junior Club on the Central Coast". rleague.com. Retrieved April 4, 2010. 
  3. ↑ "NSW Cup Finals Week 1 - Match Reviews". rleague.com. September 12, 2009. Retrieved April 4, 2010. 
  4. ↑ "NSW Cup Finals Week 2 - Match Reviews". rleague.com. September 20, 2009. Retrieved April 4, 2010. 
  5. ↑ "Storm departure opens the door for Central Coast Bears". rleague.com. August 6, 2009. Retrieved April 4, 2010. 
  6. ↑ "Central Coast Centurians". NSWRL. Retrieved 15 March 2010. 

External links

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