Coates’ rise from Olympic hopeful to NRL’s fastest man

Sports

BRISBANE Broncos’ Papua New Guinea-born winger Xavier Coates is the fastest man in the NRL so it is no surprise he once dreamed of being an Olympian.
The 19-year-old was clocked by the Telstra Tracker at 36.9km/h when he scored a length-of-the-field intercept try against the Knights, surpassing this season’s record of 36.8km/h set by Melbourne speedster Josh Addo-Carr in round two.
Coates played for Marymount College and Currumbin Eagles on the Gold Coast as a junior where he was coached in both sides by Storm premiership winner Matt Geyer.
Geyer said last year that Coates was set to give up league and focus on athletics as a 15-year-old before the following year having a breakout season and eventually being signed by the Broncos.
“Coming through juniors, I was really into athletics,” the speedster said leading into Saturday night’s clash with the Titans.
“I used to do sprint training which helped with my long jump and triple jump. Getting that right and cementing those mechanics when I was younger definitely helped coming through the NRL system because I already knew the technique.
“I’ve just tried to improve on that. We have the right coaches here at the Broncos to help do that.
“I definitely had goals coming out of high school. I wanted to try and go to the World Juniors. It was a bit far away.
“But I definitely had goals of becoming an Olympic athlete, and to try and represent PNG.
“If you set your goals high, you have a lot of time to work towards them and you have a lot of opportunities coming through.
“The thing I learnt coming up was that life never really goes to plan.
“I didn’t expect to be playing for the Broncos at all. I thought I was going to be doing athletics.”
Coates said breaking records was the last thing on his mind last Thursday night.
“I tried to do my job. I didn’t think too much about it,” he said.
“The Foxx (Addo-Carr) definitely has me covered, don’t worry about that.”
Coates, who has been likened in power and style to Greg Inglis and even given the nickname “Little GI” by Broncos teammates, also looked up to former Titans speedster David Mead.
“As a kid, because I was born in PNG and brought up in a PNG family, it was definitely David Mead,” he said.
“Outside the PNG system, (I looked up to) Greg Inglis. He pretty much tore the comp apart.
“Those two were my idols. I don’t think you can really compare me to GI.
“I haven’t really done too much or shown as much potential as him.
“When I played NRL last year, I was a bit inconsistent.
“You can see when you watch those games that I had a lot to improve on.
“You can’t drop off at any time because as soon as you do that, you get put under the pump.” – NRL

9 comments

  • Apart from all his sentiments I am delighted to see how he says here.;
    “But I definitely had goals of becoming an Olympic athlete, and to try and represent PNG”. He said he wanted to represent PNG in Olympic athlete. That means representing PNG was his childhood dream. No doubt, he is definitely making the Kumul squad in 2021 world cup in England.

  • He’s not found his feet yet, he’s still learning. Not long he’ll mature and that’s when you’ll see a lot more involvement from this kid.

  • He is still developing a lot of techniques and coming up. perhaps after 2 or 3 years later he will become another GI and PNG you be be proud of him.

  • Coates, the man behind PNG’s pride and smiles.
    You’re very young, we’re hopefully sure you’ll put more records in the NRL.

    Come 2021WC,can’t wait to see Coates shine with the Red, black and Gold jumper.

  • Xavior Coates, the man behind PNG’s pride and smiles.
    You’re very young, we’re hopefully sure you’ll put more records in the NRL.

    Come 2021WC,can’t wait to see Coates shine with the Red, black and Gold jumper.

  • Go Kumul! Thank you for having the heart to represent PNG. Looking forward to seeing you play for KUMULS IN 2021 RUGBY WORLD CUP. BOY TUMAS…

  • ….imagine both Xavier Coates and Alex Johnston in the Kumul team as well for the 2021 world cup challenge.!!!

Comments are closed.