The Batemans Bay Tigers have announced the signing of Brent Pike to be the club’s captain/coach for the 2019 season.
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Pike played Group 20 rugby league with Tullibigeal Lake Cargelligo, and scored 23 tries during the regular season.
He also has a number of representative honours, including coaching Group 20’s under 23s side for the past three years, and winning the Country Championships with Riverina in both 2014 and 2015.
Tigers president John McAllister said Pike’s signing was a big deal for the club.
“We tried to get Brent to sign with us last year, but he wasn’t able to commit at the time,” he said. “When he finished the season this year, he gave us a call and said he was still interested, so we started up negotiations.
“We’re hoping he will gel really well with our guys from last year, because we’d love to go one better in 2019.”
McAllister said the club were trying to keep last year’s captain/coach Luke Farmer at the club.
“We’ve asked Luke to consider staying on as a player,” he said. “We had a really good season with Luke last year, and it was a standout year for us.
“We’re really thankful for all the work Luke has put in to the club, and the achievements that came with that work.
“We hope he’ll stay, but that’s a choice for him to make.”
McAllister said the club will hold off until its AGM next Sunday before announcing any more signings for season 2019, but said there were a few players interested.
“We’ve got our AGM next Sunday, so once that’s over and the committee is formed, we’ll start heavy negotiations,” he said.
“Brent’s got a couple of people he’s talked to, so we’ll wait until he gets down here to follow them up. Having said that, we’re keen to keep as much of our squad from last year as possible.”
The Tigers have already started working for next season, as they ran a sausage sizzle at Bunnings Warehouse to help raise funds for 2019.
“I’d like to thank the people that helped on the weekend at Bunnings,” McAllister said. “Mitch Hockey, Ryan Connell, and Adam McCann all came and helped out, and most of the committee was there as well.
“We managed to raise a bit of money for next season.”
