{"id":260636,"date":"2023-01-01T19:23:56","date_gmt":"2023-01-01T20:23:56","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/?p=260636"},"modified":"2023-01-02T20:59:52","modified_gmt":"2023-01-02T20:59:52","slug":"young-guns-new-deal-almost-didnt-happen","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/?p=260636","title":{"rendered":"Young gun's new deal 'almost didn't happen'"},"content":{"rendered":"

Rabbitohs<\/a> officials are delighted after signing the youngster who stole the show at the recent Koori Knockout<\/a> tournament.\n<\/p>\n

A host of clubs were chasing 17-year-old half\/five-eighth Shaqueil Saunders after a video of an amazing try he scored at the tournament went viral.\n<\/p>\n

Saunders brought back memories of the legendary chip-and-chase king Phil Blake when he did a little kick over the defence with his right foot, followed by another with his left, to score a stunning try for Combined Countries.<\/p>\n

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But for the Bunnies, snaring the Indigenous youngster almost didn't happen.\n<\/p>\n

"They couldn't contact Shaq despite trying for several days," said manager Gavin Orr, who had his own troubles finding the youngster before signing him up.\n<\/p>\n

"The recruitment officer, a scout and even head coach Jason Demetriou were trying to track him down for days without any luck.\n<\/p>\n

"They eventually got hold of him and now he's a Bunny."\n<\/p>\n

While officials had trouble finding Saunders, fellow Indigenous players did not.\n<\/p>\n

Bulldogs flyer Josh Addo-Carr got hold of him, as did Souths champion Latrell Mitchell, who put the Bunnies onto his case.\n<\/p>\n

Now the teenager is driven five hours each way, three times a week, to Souths training by his parents from their home in the Karuah Aboriginal Community, north of Newcastle.\n<\/p>\n

\"Shaqueil<\/p>\n

"It's a long way to the big city and a massive cultural change, but Souths are looking after him well," Orr said.\n<\/p>\n

"The club has had plenty of brilliant young Aboriginal players down the years and we thought they would be the best fit.\n<\/p>\n

"He is still young and will play in the SG Ball Cup next season – but he is a special talent and the club are over the moon to have him."<\/p>\n

For a daily dose of the best of the breaking news and exclusive content from Wide World of Sports, subscribe to our newsletter by<\/strong><\/em> clicking here<\/strong><\/em><\/a>!\u00a0<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Rabbitohs officials are delighted after signing the youngster who stole the show at the recent Koori Knockout tournament. A host of clubs were chasing 17-year-old […]<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/260636"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=260636"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/260636\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":260638,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/260636\/revisions\/260638"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=260636"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=260636"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=260636"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}