Four decades after his dad entered rugby league folklore - pre-game pie, beer and all - Jack Cogger steps into Nathan Cleary’s $1 million boots in eerily similar fashion.
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41 years ago ‘the meat pie hero’ debuted off the hill. Now history is repeating
June 9, 2023 — 11.30am
Forty-one years after the SOS call rang out at Lidcombe Oval, the meat pie hero was back on the hill.
Might have even treated himself to a beer and savoury pastry too.
It’s not every day father and son tread such a similar path in rugby league. But Trevor Cogger can appreciate the parallels in the
Panthers calling on son Jack to fill Nathan Cleary’s $1 million boots against the Dragons, with dad watching all the while from the Penrith hill.
Trevor still gets stopped in the street by old Magpies fans recalling one of the game’s great yarns: the day Alan Neil and Terry Lamb went down against the Bulldogs in 1982 and the call rang out across the Lidcombe Oval loudspeaker.
“Trevor Cogger please report to the Western Suburbs dressing room.”
Cogger, having played third grade and already downed a beer and a pie, dismissed his mates’ suggestions “you’re going to get thrown in here” because he’d never even trained with the first-graders, and took his time ambling down to the sheds.
The Sydney Sun’s coverage of Trevor Cogger’s first-grade debut in 1982.Credit: Fairfax Archives
He did get thrown in. Cogger snr played 25 minutes, scored two tries, sparked a comeback win and went on to play 160 games for the Magpies over the next decade.
“It’s funny isn’t it,” Jack laughs before Saturday’s clash with the Roosters, where he will steer the back-to-back reigning premiers around in Cleary’s absence.
“I must have heard that yarn thousands of times and it changes every single time. It’s a very cool story. I don’t think anyone’s getting called up after a pie and a beer these days.
“I might have done the next closest thing to it with a late call-up and Nath’s injury.”
Jack Cogger: Following in the footsteps of the ‘Meat Pie Hero’Credit: Harry Ward
Trevor’s mum duly had
The Sun’s ‘Meat Pie Hero’ page torn out for the scrapbook, the newspaper clipping laminated and framed over time.
“She’ll buy up every paper in Lidcombe on Saturday for this story,” Trevor jokes.
“But I remember getting the paper the day after the game back then, I was an apprentice electrician and on the 6am train to Sydenham. I opened the paper, saw my face, got the fright of my life and closed it very quickly, hoping no-one saw me reading my own press!”
When Ivan Cleary presented Jack with his first Panthers jersey last week, he acknowledged the “interesting journey” the 25-year-old had taken. It’s no Lidcombe to Sydenham train ride.
‘Rebuilding ... It’s nice being at a club that’s pretty much built.’
Jack Cogger on his journey to a starting Panthers halfback spot
“And it’s not for everyone,” Cogger says of his 70 games for Newcastle, Canterbury and Huddersfield, with two releases and a Super League stint among them.
“But it’s helped get me where I am today. Those clubs at the time, ‘rebuilding’ is the word that people like to use about them.
“It’s nice being at a club that’s pretty much built and the class of players in this team, it’s pretty special and I think I’m pretty lucky to be a part of it.”
When word first reached him that Ivan Cleary wanted to chat a potential one-year deal via Zoom, Cogger didn’t hesitate. He jumped online at 1am in Turkey while he and his partner were making their way back to Australia.
Nathan Cleary leaves the fray against the Dragons on Sunday.Credit: Getty
“Because I’ve been around this game a while and I know how things can change in a minute, let alone a couple of days,” he says.
“When Penrith comes calling, I’m not leaving that to chance. So I was getting that Zoom chat sorted straight away and obviously I said the right things because it happened very quickly afterwards.”
While Cleary’s six-week hamstring tear gives Cogger his first NRL crack in three years, the former Australian schoolboy earns it on a weekly basis out west.
As Penrith’s back-up half, he sits in on NRL spine meetings with Cleary and fellow Blues Origin star Jarome Luai. Cogger then runs as the opposition playmaker for any given week. Then he gets his own game going with his NSW Cup teammates.
“It’s three preparations sometimes in a week, but that’s part of the gig and it’s a decent chance to learn,” Cogger says.
“And obviously I’m watching Nathan Cleary go about his business. He’ll still play a massive part in our strategies and how we play and I’ll be taking advice and tips off him along the way.”
The fruits of which were on display with an absolute peach of a play against the Dragons, shortly after Cleary returned to Penrith’s bench with his hamstring busted and his Origin campaign over.
Cogger’s deft chip kick for a flying Brian To’o try right before half-time looked as though it had been practised to within in an inch of its life by all.
“But we’d actually called for that play on the first scrum I was out there, we’d spoken about it during the week,” Cogger said. “I just fumbled the ball slightly and couldn’t get the kick away.”
Rather aptly, the chance came soon enough and Cogger nailed it.
Watching all the while, with seats already booked at Allianz Stadium this Saturday, is the original meat pie hero.
