Tweed Heads Seagulls
Encyclopedia
Rugby league
Rugby league football, usually called rugby league, is a full contact sport played by two teams of thirteen players on a rectangular grass field. One of the two codes of rugby football, it originated in England in 1895 by a split from Rugby Football Union over paying players...
club based in Tweed Heads, New South Wales
New South Wales
New South Wales is a state of :Australia, located in the east of the country. It is bordered by Queensland, Victoria and South Australia to the north, south and west respectively. To the east, the state is bordered by the Tasman Sea, which forms part of the Pacific Ocean. New South Wales...
, and is the only non-Queensland
Queensland
Queensland is a state of Australia, occupying the north-eastern section of the mainland continent. It is bordered by the Northern Territory, South Australia and New South Wales to the west, south-west and south respectively. To the east, Queensland is bordered by the Coral Sea and Pacific Ocean...
team to play in the Queensland Cup
Queensland Cup
The Queensland Cup is the premier rugby league football competition in the State of Queensland, Australia.It is a statewide competition with the majority of teams based in South East Queensland but also including sides based in Cairns, Mackay and Rockhampton.The competition began in 1996 as a...
.
History
After originally being formed as a rugby unionRugby union
Rugby union, often simply referred to as rugby, is a full contact team sport which originated in England in the early 19th century. One of the two codes of rugby football, it is based on running with the ball in hand...
club in the 1890s, the team, along with other north coast New South Wales clubs, switched to the professional rugby league
Rugby league
Rugby league football, usually called rugby league, is a full contact sport played by two teams of thirteen players on a rectangular grass field. One of the two codes of rugby football, it originated in England in 1895 by a split from Rugby Football Union over paying players...
code.
With legendary former Test halfback Barry Muir
Barry Muir
Barry Muir is an Australian former rugby league footballer and coach. An Australian and Queensland representative halfback, he played in twenty-two Tests between 1959 and 1964, as captain on two occasions...
as captain-coach, Tweed Seagulls failed to win a game in 1971 in the Group 18 Gold Coast competition. However the following year In the Seagulls reached the grand final under Tom Searle, (father of Michael Searle
Michael Searle
Michael Searle is an Australian businessman and rugby league football identity. He is the Chief Executive for the Gold Coast Titans, the National Rugby League's most recently added team...
), only to beaten by a Gold Coast Tigers side which included 17-year-old Steve Rogers in the centres.
In 1990 the Seagulls Leagues club bought out the license for the Gold Coast - Tweed Giants
Gold Coast Chargers
Gold Coast were a professional Rugby league football club which played in the New South Wales Rugby League premiership from 1988 to 1994, the Australian Rugby League premiership from 1995 to 1997, and the National Rugby League premiership in 1998...
, and renamed the club the Gold Coast Seagulls, although it continued to play its home games in the New South Wales town of Tweed Heads. In 1995 the club sold its license to businessmen Jeff Muller, who changed the club's name to Gold Coast Gladiators.
Prior to 2005, the team played in the Gold Coast - Group 18
Group 18 Rugby League
Group 18 is the name of a rugby league competition on the far north coast of New South Wales, Australia. Currently, the group has no senior competition. Prior to 2005, there was a joint Gold Coast-Group 18 competition which fielded teams from both the Queensland and New South Wales sides of the...
competition; however, at the end of 2004 this was disbanded and split, with the Queensland-based clubs playing in a dedicated Gold Coast competition and the remainder playing in an expanded Group 1 competition
The Tweed Heads Seagulls was formed in 1909 and is one of the oldest Rugby league
Rugby league
Rugby league football, usually called rugby league, is a full contact sport played by two teams of thirteen players on a rectangular grass field. One of the two codes of rugby football, it originated in England in 1895 by a split from Rugby Football Union over paying players...
clubs in Australia
Australia
Australia , officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country in the Southern Hemisphere comprising the mainland of the Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous smaller islands in the Indian and Pacific Oceans. It is the world's sixth-largest country by total area...
. Tweed applied for the 2002 Queensland Cup but were unsuccessful. Following the exit of the Logan City Scorpions
Logan Scorpions
The Logan Scorpions were an Australian rugby league football club from the suburb of Slacks Creek in Logan City, Queensland. Due to financial difficulties, the club ceased operation at the end of the 2002 Queensland Cup season, and merged with the Souths Magpies to form a new team, the Souths Logan...
at the end of 2002, Tweed re-applied, successfully, for the 2003 competition.
In 2006 Tweed Heads successfully entered the FOGS Cup and FOGS Colts Challenge
Brisbane A-Grade Rugby League
The FOGS Cup is an 11 team competition that is the level below the Queensland Cup. It started in 2001, then known as the Quest Cup and changed its name to the Mixwell Cup in 2003. Finally it became the FOGS Cup in 2006...
Crest and colours
The Tweed jersey is traditionally black and white butcher stripes, similar in design to that of Past Brothers. The Gold Coast Seagulls initially played in a similar jersey, with the addition of two red lines horizontally through each wide black stripe on the jersey.Home ground
Tweed Heads originally played out of Seagulls StadiumSeagulls Stadium
Seagulls Stadium was a rugby league stadium located on Gollan Drive in West Tweed Heads, New South Wales, a suburb of the Gold Coast.Originally known as Chris Cunningham Field, it was the home ground of the Gold Coast-Tweed Giants rugby league franchise, who entered the New South Wales Rugby League...
on Gollan Drive, West Tweed Heads. However due to financial trouble, the club sold the ground in the late 1990s and the stadium was demolished. Currently, Tweed play their Queensland Cup games nearby at the Piggabeen Sports Complex.