Adam Megrettton	Adam Miller	Adie Carr	Ben Parker	Ben Richardson	Jack Hartness
		James Glover	Liam Grimmett

These students are from schools that we visit on our UK tours, Outwood Grange Academy in Wakefield and Castleford High School, Castleford.

Outwood have now decided to send a teacher from their PE department and Rugby League group, Toby Rutter, to accompany the students for the duration of the exchange.

Two students that were to attend school with our friends at Rockhampton High will now be billeted with families at our school instead.

Castleford High is also sending an accompanying teacher, Paul Young, who is staying in Australia for the first two weeks of the exchange period.

This brings to 11 the number of students being billeted by families of the MSHSRLA, eight from Wakefield and three from Castleford.

This exchange program has grown into one of the crowning features of the MSHSRLA program.

This program offers our students the opportunity to create a network of future friends and contacts as they complete a tour or an exchange in Yorkshire, English Rugby League’s heartland.

This is a very scenic and historic part of England and is home to very welcoming communities that have much in common with Mackay and Queensland, including a keen interest in Rugby League.

Wakefield in particular has become Mackay High’s unofficial ‘home’ in the UK due to our special relationship with the Outwood school and its wider school community.

Our thanks go out to the MSHSRLA families who have agreed to host our visiting exchange students this year, several of whom, the Sainsbury’s, Heading’s and Ahern’s have previously either hosted exchange players, sent students on exchange, or both.

Of course, the inability to host students here does not preclude students from applying to be selected to complete an exchange in England and all interested students are urged to discuss this opportunity with academy staff.

The English lads will arrive in Mackay on Wednesday the 30th of June following The Broncos Country Cup Carnival on the Gold Coast which they will be attending to play in a combined team with selected members of the MSHSRLA.

Cutters coach Paul Bramley, left, with Mackay High rugby league academy’s Sean Ryall, coach Nathan Doyle, James Wylie, Evert Hansson, Shilo Viti, Cutters hooker Neil Budworth and school principal Steve Paulger.

MACKAY High School’s aims in schoolboy competitions are expanding after the city’s Queensland Cup team got behind the school’s rugby league academy yesterday.

The STM Mackay Cutters has signed a three-year deal to share coaching structures, resources and facilities with the school’s academy, with the aim of providing a pathway for players through to the Queensland Cup and the NRL.

“The Cutters are a professional organisation and this can only strengthen our status as an elite program,” academy head coach Nathan Doyle said.

Doyle said over the past four years Mackay High School had consistently proved itself to be one of the top eight schools for rugby league in the state, giving academy members the opportunity to test themselves at the highest level of schoolboy competition.

“Not only will Mackay High remain a force in rugby league, but the Cutters will certainly reap the rewards through their under-18 and under-16 development programs,” he said.

“This consistent approach will enhance the development of young local rugby league talents.”
Cutters coach Paul Bramley hoped the agreement would add to the academy’s program and make the school a contender on the national stage.

But he said the Cutters were not exclusive to Mackay High and were looking to work with other schools, including Mirani where there is also a rugby league program. “We are working with the junior and senior clubs and schools to ensure that everybody who plays rugby league has the same benefit,” he said.