It has been a big year so far for young gun Jye Gray and he’s hoping for more good things to come.
The Parkwood Sharks and Runaway Bay Seagulls junior was part of the Souths Logan Magpies team that went undefeated all season and claimed this year's Auswide Bank Mal Meninga Cup title and his performances during the competition saw him gain selection in the extended Queensland Under 19 Boys squad.
The squad gathered in Brisbane earlier this week for a training camp before the final team for the representative fixture gets named.
“It’s good, playing up with the older boys now, so it’s a good experience and I will just take it as it comes,” Gray said of the training camp which also saw his Souths Logan teammates Blake Mozer, Tim Sielaff-Burns and Chris Faagutu gain selection.
With the Queensland under 18 statewide competitions title now safety in his keeping, Gray was gearing up to return to play schoolboys rugby league for The Southport School for the remainder of the year, and said he took plenty of lessons from his Auswide Bank Mal Meninga Cup experience.
“It was a good experience, obviously we had K (Karmichael Hunt) coaching his first year, he taught us so much,” the five-eighth said.
“And then we had Justin Hodges running our water, so that was a good experience as well, just two big names that have been there and done it all.
“(Playing in the grand final) was exciting, we knew that we haven’t been the best second half team all year, so we knew even with our lead at halftime, that it was still going to be a grind.
“I always felt that we had it, but I knew that we just needed to dig deep there, and I knew we could with the team we had.”
Hunt thrilled with grand final win in first year as coach
The date and venue for the Queensland Under 19 representative clash against New South Wales match will be announced in coming weeks.
