TASMANIA and South Australia are hardly states that spring to mind when discussing rugby league. But they are two of the main components to the history of the Easts Tigers development officer James Johns.

James, appointed in the middle of April, had spent the past two and a half years in South Australia as an Australian Rugby League development officer. Before that he had worked in the same field with the Tasmanian Rugby League.

And all this from a Tasmanian by birth who spent more than six years in the Royal Australian Navy. "I played rugby in the services," he said. "I continued playing throughout my time in the Service, however when I was posted to Sydney I saw my first game of league at North Sydney Oval between the Bears and St George. After the first hit, I said 'this is fantastic' and 'how do get to play this?' As there was no formal league competition in the services then, so I played the game socially."

Johns is loving his new task at Langlands Park. "The people are great and it is exciting to be working full time in a structured rugby league environment," he said. "I've spent most of my time so far touching base with the major stakeholders such as affiliated clubs, educational staff and the district school sport officers."

He said that even from the short time he had spent in his new job he could see that a lot of work needed to be done in local schools."It's not dissimilar to working in Tasmania and South Australia as there are the same challenges and you are competing against other sports just as like down south," he said. In Tasmania, his primary work was to introduce league into schools, however the job evaporated when ARL funding dissolved.

He said school football had once been dramatically stronger in the eastern suburbs but had dropped off in recent seasons. "Our task is to get the code being played in local schools," he said. "I've spent quite a bit of time with affiliated clubs and schoolteachers, who are essential to spreading the message and creating pathways to junior league." Johns said Easts development area was vast, stretching as far as Redlands and out to Spring wood and Rochedale and then through across Mount Gravatt and through to the closer inner suburbs such as Holland Park, Camp Hill, Carina and Cannon Hill.

James has moved north with his wife Andrea and young children Truen, 4, and Kiirra, 17 months. "The job is more of a lifestyle than an occupation," he said. "I work weekends and am always looking at junior and senior games, holding school clinics and looking for ways to increase the number of junior players making their way from schools into our affiliated clubs.

"One of the most important tasks is building relationships with the league organisations which exist now. I also have to help identify kids with talent. A trend I have noticed is that kids are identified a lot earlier now, so that means a lot of my work is in the primary schools and junior high school years. I will be working to increase the participation of our primary schools in the resident primary school competitions for 2006. This first step to playing competitive rugby league is very important and it is from the schools competitions that we can increase recruitment for our junior clubs."

James has been able to link with former Shark and Bronco Paul Green, his counterpart at Easts Carina, and has met Peter Nolan from the Broncos. He said a number of schools now were putting major focus on academic achievements, as well as the change to active lifestyles rather than organised sport, a fact which makes the task all that more challenging.