MARYMOUNT MATES HAD SEEN IT ALL BEFORE
WHEN Gold Coast teen Xavier Coates leapt out of the Broncos defensive line to pluck a try-saving intercept against Newcastle, his old teachers and schoolmates alike moved to the edge of their seats.
They knew what was coming next as the 19-yearold Marymount College graduate hit the open field.
Coates set school records in track and field, including shot-put (under-15), long jump (u13-u18), triple jump (u13-u18), the 400m (u18) and 100m (u15) sprints.
Against the Knights in Gosford, Coates dusted off his old jet-boots, sprinting at a rate of 36.9km/h to dethrone Origin star Josh Addo-Carr as the season’s fastest NRL player.
There were cheers as Coates scored but nobody at Marymount College could claim to be surprised.
“We’d seen him on the track at school and I’d never seen anyone push him,” college sportsmaster Trent Balym said. “He never had anyone to chase.
“As soon as he took the intercept I knew no one could have caught him.
“With his height and stride length he’s almost like Usain Bolt – he was always going to fly across the field.”
Coates is a potent cocktail of speed and power that 262game Melbourne Storm winger Matt Geyer observed closely while coaching him at Marymount.
Geyer says the blazing Bronco could have been lost to league if not for the love he found playing with his buddies in the school team.
“He nearly gave it up aged 15 or 16 because he never got picked in any representative teams,” Geyer said.
“He got disenchanted and was leaning towards walking away. I had to convince him to come back to footy.”
Geyer said Coates signed with Brisbane because they were the first team to contact him as he began to emerge as a player of potential.