Schonig working to fulfil his NRL dream
FORMER Northern Pride prop and Edmonton Storm junior Darryn Schonig has impressed coach Craig Bellamy in his first pre-season with the Melbourne Storm.
The bullocking front-row forward reported for the first gruelling session of the Storm’s pre-season last November and has since won over the notoriously hard-to-impress rugby league mentor with his work ethic and a determination to achieve his goal of an NRL debut in 2020.
“He’s been really good with us and he’s worked really hard,” Bellamy said.
“He came back a little bit underdone this pre-season but he’s worked really hard since, and that’s what I like about him – he does work hard.”
The esteemed NRL coach said he could see a first-grade debut in Schonig’s future if the 23-year-old could “finetune” certain aspects of his game.
“He’s got a bit of work to do defensively, to be honest, but if he keeps working hard like he is, I couldn’t see any reason why he wouldn’t play some first grade,” Bellamy said.
“The one thing he has got is he’s certainly hard to handle when he runs that ball.
“He’s got good pace for a big man and he’s got a good bit of footwork as well.”
Bellamy acknowledged that Schonig was “built a bit differently” to the Storm’s starting prop pair of Jesse Bromwich and Nelson Asofa-Solomona,
“He’s not as tall as some of them, but he’s really thickset and he’s got good footwork and good leg speed,” he said.
“He’s just got to make sure he keeps working hard at his strengths, but also just finetune those couple of things he’ll need to improve on defensively and it’ll give him every chance to play NRL.”
After two Intrust Super Cup seasons with hometown club the Northern Pride, Schonig moved to the Sunshine Coast
Falcons for the 2019 season.
The Cooktown product achieved his dream of securing an NRL contract midway through last year, when the Storm signed him to a full-time deal in June.
Schonig is yet to make his debut but was part of the Storm’s 18-man NRL Nines squad last weekend.
Schonig played in one of the Storm’s two games at the tournament and, in limited time on the field, averaged 12 metres per carry, broke two tackles and recorded an offload.