NRL: Julian Christian earns train and trial deal with Cowboys
On Wednesday morning, Julian Christian will be one of a handful of players who will walk into Cowboys HQ on a train and trial deal.
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AS Julian Christian drove himself around Townsville this week, it had still not yet hit home that the opportunity of a lifetime to crack the NRL had finally arrived.
“I’m here by myself so I can’t stop thinking about it,” Christian said.
“A lot of hard work and sacrifices have gone into it.
“Now it’s finally here, it’s a really proud moment for myself and my family. I want to make the most of it.
“It’s been a long time coming.”
On Wednesday morning, Christian will be one of a handful of players who will walk into Cowboys HQ on a train and trial deal.
He will train with the Cowboys squad and have the chance to impress head coach Todd Payten and his assistants by putting in the work where it can make the biggest difference: the training park.
And by doing so, Christian’s rugby league journey will come full circle - not bad for a bloke who, 18 months ago, wasn’t even considering lacing up the boots.
Christian grew up and lived in Cairns until he was 16 years old, when he moved to elite schoolboys nursery Kirwan State High School.
He was the first North Queenslander to win the Peter Sterling Medal as Australia’s most outstanding schoolboy, dazzled in Kirwan’s run to the national championship that season, and claimed the Sam Thaiday Medal as the school’s player of the year and again in 2016 before signing with the Broncos.
A stint with the Broncos’ U20s and four years at the Ipswich Jets, where he made his Hostplus Cup debut, followed before he returned to the tropics.
“I only came back home because I was homesick and my family lived in Cairns and Edmonton,” Christian said.
“I wasn’t going to play any footy at all, I was just here to be with my family.
“My mum is from Innisfail and I had a few mates there who kept asking me so I went there for a bit of muckaround football, and we ended up making the grand final.”
And that’s where things changed.
Northern Pride coach Ty Williams’ sights were on Christian the moment he returned to FNQ, and he kept a close eye as the utility lined up for Innisfail Leprechauns in the Cairns District Rugby League.
Innisfail lost the grand final but Christian was back, inking a deal with the Pride and earning an opportunity to state league footy.
There was one big shift to come: Williams wanted Christian to switch to fullback after spending his entire career in the halves.
“All of a sudden we started to see how he reads the game and playing off the cuff,” Williams said.
“The way he plays football, he has a lot of strings to his bow.
“If it’s a structure you’re chasing, football IQ is knowledgeable, but if you want something off the cuff, he has that up his sleeve.
“The big benefit we’ll get is defensively, the movements he makes and the way he organises teams and so forth, he’ll have to be very vocal in his six weeks down there.”
That positional switch has breathed new life into Christian’s career.
He was outstanding for the Pride in 2022, producing plenty of highlight plays that left spectators scratching their heads and wondering why this bloke hadn’t been seen in the NRL.
Now, he has his chance, and Christian puts most of the thanks on Williams and the impact he’s had on his career in such a short time.
“He was the one who got me back in, they put their trust in me and gave me the opportunity to come back,” Christian said.
“Eighteen months ago I wasn’t playing any footy at all.
“I have a lot of respect for him for putting his trust in me.
“He brought me back from playing A-grade footy to a brand new position I haven’t played before at state level, and gave me the freedom to do my job, play my type of footy, and he’ll back me.
“He’s always backed me … and it’s paid off.”
matthew.mcinerney1@news.com.au
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Originally published as NRL: Julian Christian earns train and trial deal with Cowboys
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