Santi in right place to push NRL dream
WORKHORSE forward Brendan Santi believes there’s no better place to kickstart his NRL dream than the Townsville Blackhawks.
Santi will reunite with the Blackhawks this season after leaving the club in 2017 to chase a first- grade opportunity with the Sydney Roosters.
The 24- year- old has played 11 NRL games to date with the Wests Tigers, but he was unable to crack the Roosters’ squad, spending the year with feeder club the Wyong Roos.
The seeds for a Blackhawks homecoming were planted when Santi was in Townsville playing for Italy in last year’s World Cup and he joined the team for preseason training just before Christmas.
Santi admitted he only left the Blackhawks in hopes of securing another NRL deal and he said he was excited to move back to Townsville.
“If it wasn’t for the opportunity to play at the Roosters I would’ve never left,” Santi said.
“The boys really made me feel at home last time so it wasn’t too hard to come back. It’s a great place to be.
“If you want to progress ( to the NRL), you want to be at one of the best teams and the Blackhawks are one of those teams.
“It’s still a dream to get back up there and this is a platform. Being at a really good club is where you’re going to be noticed.
“If I play well at the Blackhawks then I have every opportunity to go back up there.”
Santi missed the first few weeks of preseason with his World Cup commitments, but he had glowing praise for his teammates for their work ethic at training.
Bookmakers have installed the Blackhawks as the $ 6 title favourites, and while Santi didn’t want to get caught up in any preseason hype, he was adamant they have the squad to finally win the Queensland Cup.
“I never like the favourite tag, but I do believe in the boys a lot and I do believe in what we’re creating at training and what could be,” Santi said.
“I don’t blame them for putting us favourites, but we’ve got a lot of work to do before that. It’s a long season so we’ll just take it by the first game and go from there.
“They’re just a hardworking group and it’s just a pleasure to be alongside them. I couldn’t pick one person out, everyone really puts in.”
Santi was among 24 players named to take on the Central Queensland Capras in a pre- season trial in Mackay this Saturday night. BLACKHAWKS EXTENDED SQUAD Ross Bella, Joe Boyce, Paul Byrnes, Michael Carroll, Ty Carucci, Duar- ne Dempsey, Zac Dockar- Clay, Kalifa Faifai Loa, Jaelen Feeney, Sam Foster, Kris Freeman, Rod Griffin, Marshall Hudson, Jordan Kenworthy, Sione Louisi, Cade Maloney, Jake Marketo, Samuel Martin- Savage, David Munro, Andrew Niemoeller, Temone Power, Kieran Quabba, Jonathon Reuben, Brenden Santi.