It may be easy to forget considering how far he has come now, but there was a time when Dylan Edwards wasn’t Penrith’s first-choice fullback.
In fact, there was a point when he wasn’t even in the NRL team, with a report from The Sydney Morning Herald at the time claiming Edwards was at risk of being squeezed out.
It was 2019 and far from the record-breaking world beaters they are now, the Panthers were languishing near the bottom of the ladder.
Edwards, meanwhile, followed up a shaky showing against Melbourne where he made six errors with an equally nervy one against the Tigers, coughing up the ball four times.
It prompted coach Ivan Cleary to shift Edwards to the wing, where he played the following week in a 30-24 loss to the Titans, before being dropped from the first grade side altogether.
Brian To’o described it on Wednesday as a “reset” for Edwards, who returned to the NRL five weeks later against the Warriors in what happened to be his Panthers and now Blues teammate’s debut.
Penrith went down 30-10 that night, marking a sixth straight loss and 2-8 record to start the 2019 season, but a win over Parramatta the week after suddenly turned into seven in a row.
And that stunning turnaround in form also coincided with a noticeable change in Edwards, who went from averaging 104 run metres in his first six games of the year to 169 during Penrith’s seven-game winning run.
“Just watching his resilience after having that little setback of playing Cup and then just seeing the way he’s approached everything… and how everything’s panned out over the years up until today, it’s pretty good to see him grow as a person,” To’o told foxsports.com.au in Blues camp.
But as much as Edwards did grow and change in those four weeks out of first grade, in other ways not a whole lot has changed from back when he was just a kid. A kid living in a small town with big dreams.
Although maybe there is one thing that has changed.
THE MOMENT EDWARDS LEFT RIVAL COACH ASKING ‘WHAT IS GOING ON?’
The town of Dorrigo lies about one hour inland of Coffs Harbour and only 30 minutes down the mountain from the more popular Bellingen on the Mid-North coast.
Dorrigo is home to just over 1,000 people. It’s the kind of town where everyone knows everybody.
Phil Beamount, for example, coached Edwards for three years between Under 12s and 14s when he played for the Bellingen Valley-Dorrigo Magpies. They also lived on the same street.
Meanwhile Glen Crow, who was coach of the Nambucca Heads Roosters and jokingly described by Beamount as his “arch-rival”, is hoping to reconnect with Edwards in a few weeks.
The Blues fullback is planning to go back up north during the club’s bye round and Crow’s son-in-law Luke, who he said was “probably the best player” for the Magpies at the time, is best mates with Edwards.
“He’s the favourite son [of Dorrigo], you could say,” Crow told foxsports.com.au of Edwards.
Recently, winning is all Edwards has known, part of a record-breaking Panthers team that has made it three premierships in a row while the 28-year-old himself won the Clive Churchill Medal and is even currently leading the NRL’s Dally M count.
