Tallon Smith

A changing of the guard is set to take place at a Central Queensland powerhouse after the Yeppoon Seagulls confirmed that five-time premiership coach Shaun Goode has decided to step back in 2026.

As a result, long-time Seagull Lewis McPhail will take the reins of the club’s A-Grade team as they aim to defend their eighth Rockhampton Senior Local Rugby League title in 14 years next season.

Seagulls President Steve Stafford said the departure of successful mentor Goode offers an opportunity to McPhail to continue the club’s incredible run, which includes four of the last five premierships.

“Our very successful coach Shaun Goode has decided he is going to let someone else have a go and one of the blokes who has been a part of our club for a very long time in juniors Lewis McPhail is going to take the reins in the A-Grade,” he said.

“Shaun will be the director of coaching for all the coaches, that’s the deal I made with him so he can train all our coaches up and keep us all together as a club as we’d like to be.”

Goode’s decision marks the end of an era at the Seagulls, who have been by far and away the dominant force in the local league for over a decade.

However, his departure from the post is not the only change to the Seagulls’ A-Grade ranks, with the club also set to lose a few members of its highly successful side next season due to retirement, including its captain.

“We’ve had a couple of boys retire, our very successful captain for the last five [years] Sammy Holzheimer, he’s retired this year,” Stafford said. 

“We’ve still got a very strong group of boys there, a lot of young fellas coming through, I think in the Grand Final this year we had three under 19s playing, and some other very young halves as well, so we’re a very young side still.”

Another exciting development for the club came not in local footy or even in the country, but overseas in November, when Harry Grant became the first Yeppoon junior to captain Australia in the second Ashes Test against England in Liverpool.

Stafford said it was a great source of pride for the community and the club seeing one of their own add the national captaincy to his extensive rugby league resume after also serving as Queensland skipper this year.

“Very proud of him and very proud of the family and what he’s done, great advertisement for the game young Harry,” he said.

“He’s such a good lad, and he stepped straight in, seamless really and handled the job really well.”

Meanwhile, after a few seasons of changes, the Rockhampton competition is set to remain as is for the 2026 campaign after a strong year in 2025.

Seven of the competition’s 10 clubs are slated to compete in the A-Grade premiership, which expanded after Gladstone clubs voted to leave their own competition and join the Rockhampton league in 2024.

The three remaining clubs, Biloela, Fitzroy-Gracemere and Gladstone Wallabies are set to take part in the reserves competition at this stage, though this has not been completely finalised.

Yeppoon will defend its title when the season kicks off in March.