Young talent works through ‘weird year’
EVERYTHING Bailey Biondi-Odo does is just a step towards his goal of signing an NRL contract. At least, that’s how he sees it. The Innisfail product and Canterbury-Bankstown Bulldogs junior development player had a dream start to the 2020 season, earning selection in the Bulldogs’ NRL Nines squad and coming off the bench in a couple of preseason trial matches. With a glimpse of the top level lighting a fire in his belly, the 18year-old halfback was determined to make his mark with the Bulldogs’ under-20s in the Jersey Flegg Cup competition.
But, after just one round, his hopes of a breakout year were dashed as the coronavirus pandemic forced NSWRL to cancel nine competitions, including the Jersey Flegg Cup, for the 2020 season.
EVERYTHING Bailey BiondiOdo does is a step towards his goal of signing a contract to play in the NRL.
The Innisfail product and Canterbury-Bankstown Bulldogs junior development player had a dream start to the year, earning selection in the Bulldog’s NRL Nines squad and coming off the bench in pre-season trial games.
With a glimpse of the top level lighting a fire in his belly, the 18-year-old halfback was determined to make his mark with the Bulldogs’ under-20s in the Jersey Flegg Cup competition.
Those hopes of breaking out were dashed as the NSWRL cancelled nine competitions, including the Jersey Flegg Cup in which he was playing, due to coronavirus.
After a text from Northern Pride coach Ty Williams, Biondi-Odo will finally get the opportunity to return to the field to get some valuable game time in the one-off Lightning Challenge rugby league series.
While it won’t quite be a chance to impress his NRL club, the ever-determined Biondi-Odo was willing to take every opportunity to improve his game in the hope it wil help him realise his NRL dream in the long run.
“I’m always looking to improve everything,” he said.
“I think there’s always room for improvement in every part of your game, but defence is probably the biggest thing for me at the moment.
“I want to get out there and just focus on some of those things like after I hit, making sure I stick and staying connected and stuff like that.”
Biondi-Odo said he hoped he’d return to Sydney for another pre-season with the Bulldogs in November.
“It’s kind of weird times, but I’m just going to keep training, keep my body right, keep myself right and see what happens from there.
“I’d like to get back down there as soon as I can, but I’ll just have to wait and see what happens with everything.”
Biondi-Odo will be hoping the absence of this year’s Jersey Flegg Cup competition doesn’t have too much of an impact on his career trajectory.
“It’s been a weird year,” he said.
“I thought I was going really well when I was training with grade and then got a call-up to the Nines, and I was looking to have a really good year.
“I got a seven-week pre-season in my contract and after the seven weeks they wanted me to train for the whole preseason, then after the pre-season they wanted me to play in the Nines, then after that I played in a couple of trial games.
“I’ve just been training my way up, so hopefully I can go back and keep doing that.”