NRL: Yarrabah young gun Gabriel Satrick locks in future at Storm
It is the positional switch which unlocked the potential of one of the country’s best schoolboys rugby league players.
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IT is the positional switch which uncovered the talent and unlocked the potential of one of the country’s best schoolboys rugby league players.
But when shifting to hooker was first raised, Gabriel Satrick wasn’t entirely sure what to think.
Through his junior footy days at Yarrabah and Southern Suburbs, Satrick had primarily played in the halves and occasionally at centre or wing, but never in the middle.
“I wasn’t too keen but I started to get used to it, and it was kind of fun being in the middle, tackling and stuff,” he said.
He did more than get used to it; he excelled.
Satrick led Ipswich State High School to the Allan Langer Trophy, Queensland’s Phil Hall Cup and then the NRL Schoolboys Cup, capping a meteoric rise from which he went from a good player to one of the best.
He claimed the Peter Sterling Medal as the best player in the Schoolboys Cup, and is now five weeks into preseason with the Storm.
“It’s unreal,” Satrick said. (Training is) fast, hard, but we’re sticking in there.
“It’s been going good, the Storm look after us – we’re young bodies – but training hard still.
“This year has been unbelievable.
“I don’t really look back at it, I just keep going forward and look to the next job. You can’t celebrate wins too early.
The Australian Schoolboys hooker is one of 12 young footballers from Victoria, Queensland, New South Wales and New Zealand who have been identified as future NRL prospects and will learn all that it takes, on and off the field, to become a first grade player with Storm.
They are led by former Storm representative players – Academy coach Matt Duffie and Recruitment and Pathways Manager Tim Glasby – and will form part of Melbourne’s Jersey Flegg squad in 2023.
“It all happened so quick,” Satrick, 17, said.
“I moved from Yarrabah last year to Ipswich High, and it’s all just … I started training harder and I got the reward.”
The Academy is a key part of Storm’s plans to develop more “homegrown” players.
Storm CEO Justin Rodski said Storm had a strong reputation for growing and developing its own talent during the years of the NYC under-20 competition. However, those numbers had reduced since that competition ended in 2017.
“The Storm Academy is something we are very passionate about and represents the future of Melbourne Storm,” Rodski said.
“Our Academy members will receive the intensive coaching and education they need to become elite players well versed in what we do as a club on and off the field.
Satrick and fullback Matt Hill are this year’s members of the Coles First Nations Pathway Program which was launched at Storm last season.
Kulkalgal man Seamus King-Smith was part of that inaugural group, and has returned to the Northern Pride after a season at the NRL heavyweight club.
matthew.mcinerney1@news.com.au
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Originally published as NRL: Yarrabah young gun Gabriel Satrick locks in future at Storm
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