Nobody is ever around to film the phone calls that really define an NRL debut.
Take, say, Trent Toelau.
That young Penrith rookie boasting a tattooed rose on his left hand, little sleep since becoming a dad — “we’re three weeks in, it’s the best” — and even now, at age 24, still more anonymous than a wrong number.
Already, this playmaker has been rejected by every club in the NRL.
Yep, all of them.
Which is almost crazier than learning how, way across the world in China, as you read this, a group of bar staff are making preparations to show live his NRL debut.
A game where, if coach Ivan Cleary were to mix things up late and gift this young five-eighth a starting role, would make for the club’s most inexperienced halves pairing in 20 years.
Which is no small thing given even the two blokes named ahead of him right now … well, they’ve never shared even a minute of game time.
“Nah, never played together,” Jack Cole says of himself and Brad Schneider, the two starting halves named for Saturday’s home game against St George Illawarra at BlueBet Stadium.
But worry?
“We’ve trained together plenty,” continues the Orange product who, despite being able to count his NRL games on one hand, understands the value of such work given he once spent two years commuting from home to Panthers HQ for training and games.
