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Warren Ryan joins 2007 Raiders coaching staff

By Brent Read

DUAL premiership-winning coach Warren Ryan has agreed to take up a consultancy role with Canberra next season, giving incoming coach Neil Henry one of the sharpest minds in the game to work with.

The Australian revealed in March that Canberra was ready to approach Ryan to gauge his interest in assuming a part-time position with the club.

However, Ryan was only secured after Henry, appointed last month to replace Penrith-bound Matthew Elliott next season, agreed to bring the 65-year-old on board.

Ryan is regarded as one of the most astute tacticians the game has known, having coached Newtown, Balmain, Wests, Canterbury and Newcastle during a first-grade career stretching over 17 seasons and 411 games.

He has been out of frontline coaching since parting ways with Newcastle at the end of 2000. Even so, he remains a highly respected figure as both a media analyst and sounding board to some of the game's coaches.

It is understood Ryan will not have a hands-on role with the team. Rather, he will cast his eye over the Raiders' set-up and provide advice to Henry on opposition players and teams as the season progresses.

"When we were talking to Neil about the position we asked him if it would be an assistance to have someone of the calibre of Warren Ryan to bounce things off," Canberra chief executive Simon Hawkins said.

"We didn't force it on Neil. It was entirely up to him. He saw there could be some positives in it for him."

Ryan and Henry had not met before holding recent talks, which confirmed the pair would join forces next season.

Henry is in camp with the Queensland State of Origin side.

Meanwhile, Canberra playmaker Jason Smith is expected to miss at least two weeks with a broken hand.

Wests Tigers have lost prop Ryan O'Hara for their trip to New Zealand, with Kiwi international Bronson Harrison joining the squad as an 18th man.

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Geyer declines Hopoate invite
FORMER rugby league hardman Mark Geyer says he will not let John Hopoate use his profile to build a fight career and has declined a challenge to fight him in the ring.

Gaz bolsters Blues backline
HAVING centre Mark Gasnier declared fit to play in Wednesday night's opening State of Origin game gave the Blues a confidence boost, NSW assistant coach Royce Simmons said last night.

Read more SMH

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Titans boost Maroons

By Amy Harris

THE Gold Coast Titans expect to be a major source of State of Origin stock for Queensland - but don't expect too much too soon.

Football manager and former Origin player Scott Sattler has earmarked a group that he believes will lead a future Maroon contingent but says we might have to wait for three years before the new club becomes a legitimate force at Origin level.

"It won't happen straight away. We have guys like Scott Prince and Luke Bailey who will obviously be in the frame when it comes to Origin selection straight away but the homegrown Queenslanders will be a few years coming," Sattler said.

Tipped for representative honours, teenagers Will Matthews, Bodene Thompson, Matt Smith-Host, Shannon Walker and Chris Sandow are all still at high school on the Gold Coast.

All five took their first big step towards the Maroon jersey this week when they were picked in the Queensland Open Schoolboys side for the ASSRL National Exchange at Port Macquarie in July.

"Obviously it's fairly early to start making these sorts of predictions but their futures are pretty well mapped out for them," Sattler said.

"We think they're going to be standouts down the track and good potential Maroons."

Sattler said the Titans would begin to rely more on local players and less on the Sydney-based imports as the side found its feet in the NRL.

It's a plan that has worked to perfection for the North Queensland Cowboys who built their earlier foundations on key local products.

Now they famously boast the competition's best-known discovery, Matt Bowen.

"It's worked really well for the Cowboys. They have managed to establish a pathway in North Queensland and that's what we want," Sattler said.

In the meantime, the Gold Coast is understood to be closing in on negotiations with Penrith's Luke Swain, though the 24-year-old lock said he had yet to see a formal offer from the Titans camp.

A Panther since he made his NRL debut in 2003, Swain played under Titans coach John Cartwright in the Penrith reserve grade and played alongside Sattler in the 2003 premiership season.

He is also a good friend of star Coast signings Scott Prince, Preston Campbell and Frank Puletua and said he would probably accept a contract if an offer materialised.

"Definitely, it would be a move I would consider but I have yet to see anything," said Swain, who was given permission by Penrith at the weekend to talk to other clubs.

"There are a few other clubs in the mix but I have told my manager I don't really want to know about them until there is an actual offer there.

"Everyone is talking about the Gold Coast and if it's a possibility then I'd be interested."
Read more Courier Mail

RLCM DRILLS CD-ROM
Compiled from RLCM Drills Books 1, 2 & 3 and offering 233 Training Drills this CD-ROM is a neccessity for coaches at all levels of the game.

NSW Wizard Blues special jersey presentation in Martin Place

The NSW Wizard Blues will ask fans to rally behind them during a special jersey presentation in Martin Place from midday today.

The official jersey presentation has become one of the features of Origin build up.

This year will be a particularly memorable day for 17 young footballers from across NSW who have been selected to make the jersey presentations.

Blues fans are invited to get out of doors and bring their lunch along to Martin Place, where there'll be plenty of entertainment and more than 3000 prizes to be won.

NSWRL

RLCM DRILLS CD-ROM
Compiled from RLCM Drills Books 1, 2 & 3 and offering 233 Training Drills this CD-ROM is a neccessity for coaches at all levels of the game.

Gasnier's campaign up and running
BLUES centre Mark Gasnier will step up his Origin campaign today after being cleared to play in the opener.

Stick to the basics, says Taylor
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Late Mail
LUKE Lewis, previously on stand-by for the Blues, trained with the Panthers last night after Mark Gasnier was cleared to play in Origin I.

Tough test for rookies, says Mason
NSW prop Willie Mason says the seven Queensland players who will make their debut in State of Origin I on Wednesday are entitled to be nervous about doing it at Telstra Stadium.

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