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Brent Read
From: The Australian
August 24, 2013 12:00AM
HOLY Cross College Ryde coach Tim White first laid eyes on Luke Brooks nearly a decade ago. He was sold from the very start.
“When I watched him in junior league at 10 or 11, I said this kid is going to make it,” White said of Brooks, the Wests Tigers’ half who will make his long-awaited first grade debut against St George Illawarra at the SCG today.
"You could just tell. At that age kids struggle to throw a tennis ball, but he was shifting footies left to right, he was kicking, he was passing, he was running, he was palming.
"He had all the core attributes you needed at a young age. I remember we had him at a development camp when he was still in primary school. He would have been 11 or 12. There was a number of blokes there, even a couple of first-grade players and coaches, and we all said this kid is the pick of the bunch.
“The Tigers were pretty blessed to have him grow up in the area, let alone come through the grades.”
Brooks is yet to turn 19 but is already being hailed as the saviour of a football club that is going to through upheaval on and off the field.
The Tigers are a basket case. Their financial woes have been well-documented and threaten to tear apart the joint venture. More meetings are scheduled with the NRL in coming weeks to solve that problem.
As for their on-field woes, in Brooks they trust. The Tigers are ready to put their future in his sure hands. Their commitment to the teenager was reinforced by their decision to let Benji Marshall leave at the end of the season.
Tigers supporters are salivating. They have been crying out for Brooks to be let off the leash all season. It is the most anticipated debut since Marshall made his 10 years ago.
Significantly, the New Zealand international will move to the centres today to accommodate a player who has been described as an amalgam of Andrew Johns and Brad Fittler.
Big raps, but those who know him best suggest it is warranted.
“As a person he is very, very composed,” said Andrew Webster, Brooks’s SG Ball coach last year.
"He doesn’t get flustered with anything. For a halfback he is definitely not scared. He doesn’t play in a dinner suit. He’s not worried about the contact.
“He probably enjoys it, if anything. The kid also knows how to shake off some adversity too.”
That trait can be traced back to a period when Brooks suffered two broken legs in quick succession. Over 18 months, he played only a handful of games.
“The first time he broke his leg when he was 15 or 16, a lot of people wrote him off and forgot about him,” White said.
"In my opinion, even the club kind of forgot about him and didn’t do enough with him. I reckon that really drove him.
"The next year when he broke it again, it gave him that extra meaning to come through. He had to endure a lot mentally and physically.
“I reckon he had a few doubts. In the end, I remember when he came back the second time it took him one game and you just looked at him and went wow.”
Not surprisingly, the Tigers enjoyed success in the lower grades when Brooks had his hand on the tiller. They won SG Ball and Toyota Cup premierships last year alone.
Now the Tigers are banking on that success translating to the NRL, starting today. In coming years, possibly next season, the Tigers will blood Mitchell Moses as well.
Curtis Sironen is already in first-grade. Good things are on the horizon.
“Those three kids are outstanding,” White said. "They have been blessed because they have come up through the grades together. Moses and Brooks together are like watching Daley and Stuart, or Joey and Matty.
"It’s uncanny the sixth sense they have got. I knew blokes who had been watching Australian Schoolboys and been there for 40 years and they said they had never seen anything like it.
"They just turn up at the right place at the right time. It was if they had been planning it all week, but Mitchell and Luke can sniff it.
“It’s body language. They just know how to read each other. When they get to the top grade, and injury prevailing, they could really kick on and take the club forward.”
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I prefer to think of him as the first Luke Brooks.
He will find his own path in his own way and we will see if it works out
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Interesting to see how Potter uses Brooks today, will he start from the get go or bring him on from the bench like Souths & Canberra did with Keary & Milford.
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The last time anybody walked out on the Sydney Cricket Ground for the first time with more expectation than Luke Brooks, Australia was still the No.1 cricket nation.
Over the past few years there have been a few eagerly anticipated debuts, probably none more so than when a baby-faced Adam Reynolds was named as the man to replace Chris Sandow.
But this one - the expectation around Benji Marshall’s successor - trumps that.
Luke Brooks
High hopes: Luke Brooks is under pressure to perform from the Tigers faithful who have had little to cheer about all year. Photo: Getty ImagesNot even his Holden Cup coach Todd Payten, who has been around rugby league for the best part of two decades, has seen so much pressure on a player who is yet to get a taste of first-grade football.
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The 18-year-old from Holy Cross Ryde has Tigers faithful daring to dream of a new golden era at the stuttering club.
But two broken legs and a broken thumb has him rivalling the Raiders’ captain Terry Campese for the least game time during the past three years.
Tigers coach Mick Potter believes he’s ready, and for the Tigers’ sake, he needs to be. But the pressure and expectation that has surrounded him for most of the season took its toll on the teenager, whose form slump in the lower grades coincided with the push for him to be promoted to the NRL.
‘‘I don’t think he got big-headed but there was a little period there where his form dropped away,’’ Payten said.
''I don’t know whether that was because of all the publicity he was getting, but he was kind of just going through the motions and just waiting for his opportunity to play NRL.
‘‘I had a chat with him and so did Steve Georgallis, and we told him he had to earn his spot in the first grade team and his form over the last couple of weeks has been first rate. He’s there because his form warrants it.’’
It was Payten who informed last year’s premiership-winning SG Ball halfback that he would make his NRL debut against St George Illawarra on Saturday afternoon.
So big are the club’s hopes of Brooks and his high school teammate Mitchell Moses, the Tigers last month extended the pair’s contract for another four seasons.
But Payten has urged Tigers fans not to place lofty expectations on Brooks to produce miracles over the next three games in a team down on confidence and missing some of their most influential players through injury.
‘‘I know from inside the club the expectations aren’t too high,’’ Payten said.
''It’s been emphasised by the way we’re going and the form of our first grade team in general - that has probably heightened people’s expectations. It certainly has made them more eager to see him.
''But from within the club and the coaching ranks, we’re fully aware he’s just a kid still and our expectations aren’t too high.
‘‘In saying that we’re certainly confident he’ll go out there and do OK. Let’s hope people aren’t expecting miracles from him because of all the attention and publicity he has been getting.’’
Read more: http://www.smh.com.au/rugby-league/league-news/debut-of-tiger-cub-produces-a-case-of-great-expectations-20130823-2sh78.html#ixzz2cplBI1Ye -
He hasn’t even stepped foot as a first grader yet, but I still got goosebumps reading that…… The combination of Moses and brooks is really exciting to think about… Wowwww a real halves combination… Almost too good to be true
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I’m just glad to see him get a run out under his belt,whether its good bad or otherwise doesn’t matter through all the rubbish going on at the minute this is my season highlight along with the other youngsters.
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@smeghead:
I prefer to think of him as the first Luke Brooks.
He will find his own path in his own way and we will see if it works out
Well put. Expectation is a terrible burden.
I just hope that injuries give him a wide birth. I will be happy if he becomes a competent first grader by the middle of next year, which is all we need. Any ability/performance above average NRL standard would be a bonus and should not be expected.
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Excited…… Touch wood
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I don’t really appreciate how he’s been credited with the Toyota Cup win considering he didn’t even play Toyota Cup last year.
That being said damn this is exciting and nerve wracking. I hope the kid can grab the bull by the horns. The NRL is watching this kid tonight. NSW stakeholders will be watching, hoping to see something to indicate that he might be the guy to carry NSW forward in the future. Wests Tigers fans pray that he is the answer to halfback woes that can be traced back to the departure of Scott Prince. All he needs to do is stay composed and play his natural game. He has three other guys out there that are capable (one would hope) of stepping in if he falters, for better or worse. Whether he feels pressured by their presence or comforted by the fact that he knows he has support remains to be seen.
I tip him to be a star from the word go. Watch for a 40/20 off his first kick.
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I also have never seen as much media attention placed on a kid who has never played first grade. Between him and Moses it surpasses any attention Adam Reynolds or even Benji Marshall received. It’s nuts. Not since Brad Fittler has their been a more highly touted prospect that I can recall. And we have TWO!
One thing worth noting is that with all the anticipation on Brooks debuting, Nathan Brown will go out there with intent to show that he’s worth some attention himself, and he definitely is. The kid is one hardcore, old school prop and I reckon he’ll handle the step up very well.
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cannot wait…
he wont disappoint… by that i mean, he isnt going to set the world on fire, but we will see facets of his game that the tigers have desperately been seeking in the top grade for a long time…
kicking game and organisation…
cannot wait…
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Todd Payten speaks well doesn’t he …. Hope the day comes when he gets to coach these kids in the big time.
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I don’t really appreciate how he’s been credited with the Toyota Cup win considering he didn’t even play Toyota Cup last year.
This is exactly what I thought - he didn’t even play in the game. Comparing him to an amalgam of Johns and Fittler - I mean wtf ?
I say let him and Moses come into the top grade and see how they go. Hopefully they form a really good combination. I still don’t know where Sirro fits in but I reckon he is a special player.
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Not only did he not play Toyota Cup but he also didnt play much SG Ball. I find it funny how people credit Brooks and Moses for the National title when neither of them played in the nationals.
At least Moses got us there. Brooks played 5 games from memory before breaking his leg.
Pretty incredible that the side won the title without their first pick 7 and 6.
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Not only did he not play Toyota Cup but he also didnt play much SG Ball. I find it funny how people credit Brooks and Moses for the National title when neither of them played in the nationals.
At least Moses got us there. Brooks played 5 games from memory before breaking his leg.
Pretty incredible that the side won the title without their first pick 7 and 6.
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Brooks didn’t break his leg last year it was Moses
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