Iggy Park star gets his big NRL debut
IGNATIUS Park College old boy Adam Cook will realise his NRL dream tomorrow night, and he will do it before his 20th birthday.
Cook, 19, makes his NRL debut for the Canberra Raiders against the Newcastle Knights as part of a dramatic team reshuffle announced by Raiders coach Ricky Stuart earlier this week.
Word had reverberated through the rugby league community in recent weeks that Cook’s first-grade opportunity was close at hand, but his father Gary revealed the raw emotion that took hold when the news became official earlier this week.
“There was a full range of emotions; I think it came from knowing just how hard he’s worked for it,” he said.
“He was never a big fella, he had to learn how to handle himself being a smaller player.
“He’s only just sprouted up in the last 12 months, and that was by doing the hard yards.
“They’ve worked incredibly hard this year.
“The boys who aren’t playing first grade aren’t playing at all because of COVID, so they’ve been training six days a week so that when they’re called they’re ready to go.
“There are challenges and it’s a bit tough, but not once has he whinged.”
Cook was a member of
Iggy Park’s open schoolboys team in 2016 and 2017, and a Confraternity Shield winner in 2016 as a Year 11 student.
Gary, who is a teacher at Ignatius Park, said much of the credit for Cook’s stellar rise to first grade went to his coaching in Townsville.
Cook was a junior representative and played in the Townsville Blackhawks’ under-16, under-18 and under-20 teams.
“Allan Petersen was his coach in the under-16s and he did a tremendous job, as did Clint Amos, who worked with Adam, particularly with his defence,” Gary said.
“He told Adam he really had to work on it, and that’s what Adam did.
“The coaches he’s had, they’ve done so much for him. The Blackhawks system is as good as any in Queensland.”
Cook shifted to Canberra to chase his NRL opportunity last year, and will be supported by a host of Iggy Park old boys and teachers, including his former Iggy Park open rugby league coach Christian Quabba.
It was Quabba who chose Cook to play at halfback in Iggy Park’s 2016 Confraternity Shield campaign.
“I guess it was a risk because he was 16 and in Year 11, and it was a big job to guide the team, but when you work closely with him, you see the qualities he has,” Quabba said.
“He was the brains of the side and he drove us around the park.
“He had a beautiful kicking game and he eventually started backing himself with his running game.
“On the field he’s very competitive, and he’s still one of the most competitive players I’ve coached.
“He was the type of player where you’d have to turn the lights off to make him leave training.”
Cook will be one of three first-grade debutants for the Canberra Raiders in Saturday night’s clash, with the others being Darby Medlyn and Jarrett Subloo, who played his junior rugby league in Innisfail.