Bryce Cartwright - What a champion
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IT’S always a nervous time when the club you’re at makes big changes and you don’t know quite how it’s going to pan out.
That’s what it was like when Ivan Cleary made way for Anthony Griffin at the end of last season and it took a while to get a sense for what else would change.
You hear things about Hook in the media but I can only comment on what I’ve experienced and you almost have to laugh at some of the stuff that’s out there
HOOK’S TACTICAL STYLE
There’s been some talk out there that Hook has brought in really tight structures that don’t allow us young guys to play what we see.
That couldn’t be further from the truth.
It’s actually the opposite to what you expect, and what I expected. Hook’s pretty sweet with that stuff.
I was a bit worried about getting a new coach and what was going to happen with the structure.
I knew that Ivan was pretty happy with us playing that entertaining style of footy and it’s the way I want to play.
But Hook’s come along and done the same thing. He’s more than happy for us to play what we see and play off the cuff as long as we’re completing our sets.
We’re enjoying it and I’m glad we’ve got the same styles
THE MASSIVE CALLS
It’s never nice to lose teammates when you’re in the middle of what you’re hoping will be a successful season but these things sometimes happen in a professional environment.
Having Chicko and Sowie move on was a bit of a shock when it first happened and it was pretty upsetting at the time but once you understand the reasons you start to come to grips with it.
Chicko had been injured and Peter Wallace came in at hooker and did an outstanding job.
That move was good for the balance of our team and Chicko was going to find it hard to break back in, so his departure kind of made sense for everyone
Then you’ve got Sowie and we’ve all seen now how good a player Nathan Cleary is. Hook wanted to get him in and give him an opportunity and Sowie had the chance to go overseas and understood it’s a business.
In saying that, I will always have a lot of respect for those two guys and what they did for my game.
They helped me out a lot when I was coming through in my debut year, and even in the past two seasons they were a big part of improving and keeping the team together.
You can’t underestimate how hard those calls would have been for Hook to let two quality players like those two go.
But now I can see why Hook made those calls that he did and it’s working out for us at the moment.
ORIGIN DISAPPOINTMENT
Obviously there was a lot of talk around that I might get my shot for NSW this year and I felt I was in pretty good form around selection time.
One thing I did know was there’s so many good back-rowers in our game at the moment and a lot of them are NSW eligible, so it was never going to be a case of just walking straight in.
It was a little bit disappointing to miss out in the end but I’m only 21, I’ve got plenty of time in the future so I wasn’t too upset.
I think it’ll help me out in the long run because I had the experience of going into camp as a development player and saw where I need to get to be in that side.
Fingers crossed I’ll get a game next year.
THE FUTURE
I’m loving life at the Panthers right now and we’re definitely taking some big steps in the right direction.
There’s a lot of guys that are locked up for a bit of time and that’s going to be a great help in the way we build a team around that.
Knowing that everyone’s secure and hopefully everyone can stay fit and healthy and building the team around Nathan Cleary and Te Maire Martin which is exciting.
Not only that, we’ve got some big recruits who are seeing how things are panning out here and are coming on board, which will only make us stronger.
It’s a show of faith in Hook that guys are signing up long term
They can see a future here, and for a guy like Mez to re-sign for another couple of seasons, when he could have waited, that says a lot.
He’s a guy that can lead the boys around the park, and it’s exciting to think Jimmy Tamou is going to come on board as well.
All that makes me really excited to stick around, playing for a club I grew up supporting.
I was locked up when I was pretty young and I got injured and broke my ankle in 2014. I wanted to secure my future here when that happened especially with how badly it was broken.
I didn’t want to look anywhere else.
Like every junior, I couldn’t see myself playing at another club at the moment.
But you never know what can happen down the track. I’d love to stay here with all the young fellas coming through.
