Canterbury Bulldogs rookie Brandon Wakeham wants starting NRL halves spot in 2020
Canterbury local junior Brandon Wakeham has two secret weapons in his corner in his bid to unseat Jack Cogger and Lachlan Lewis from the Bulldogs’ halves in 2020.
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Brandon Wakeham wants to steal a starting spot in Canterbury’s halves next season and two premiership-winning halfbacks are helping him to get it done.
The Chester Hill junior has former halfbacks and 2004 Canterbury premiership winners, Brent ‘Shifty’ Sherwin and Johnathan Thurston in his corner.
Wakeham told The Daily Telegraph his weekly work with Sherwin has left him feeling confident about his chances of earning a start in 2020.
“Shifty comes in a couple of times a week to help out with our kicking. He’s really helped me correct the depth of my kicks. But I’m always asking him questions about when he played because he was a very crafty player and he’s got a great football brain,” Wakeham said.
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“It’s crazy, I’m a massive Bulldogs fan and I watched him in the grand final and now to get tips from him at training is insane. He’s still got it, he puts it on us at training.”
Wakeham, who played three NRL games in 2019, is in a pre-season three-way battle with first choice halves Lachlan Lewis and Jack Cogger for a place in coach Dean Pay’s top 17 next year.
While he sees himself as a halfback long term, the 20-year-old is willing to wear the No.6 jumper if it means a start in Pay’s line-up.
“I’m trying as hard as I can in training to show the coach not only can I play first grade, I can start come round one,” he said
When he’s not getting advice directly from Sherwin, Wakeham is drawing inspiration from league legend Thurston.
In his spare time, Wakeham watches highlight reels of Thurston and his North Queensland Cowboys teammate and fullback Matt Bowen to study their lethal combination in attack.
“Johnathan Thurston is my favourite player, I love JT. He wasn’t the biggest player but he put 100 per cent into everything he did on the field,” he said.
“The combination he built with Matty Bowen up in North Queensland was so good. Even now, I still watch their highlights and try to breakdown their plays.”
The Belmore local admired Thurston so much, he almost switched allegiances from the Bulldogs when the Queensland Maroons great signed with the Cowboys in 2005.
But his Canterbury loving mother wasn’t willing to accept any other colours than Blue and White in her Chester Hill home.
“I remember one game I tried to cheer for the Cowboys against the Bulldogs and she started going off at me,” Wakeham said.
“So, there was no choice for me, I couldn’t support anyone else. My family are diehard Bulldogs fans and being from the area as well means there’s no other team for us.”
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Even though Wakeham’s loyalty was tested a kid, one aspiration remained certain all the way through from his junior footy to when he made his NRL debut in round 15 against Cronulla this year – he only ever wanted to be a Bulldog.
And after a staring performance for Fiji against Lebanon during the Pacific Test match in June, where he scored a try, set up two and kicked eight from nine conversions, Wakeham earned a call-up to fulfil a life long dream.
“I had a pretty good game that day and the next week I got called up on the day from Deano [Pay] to make my debut and it was surreal,” he said.
“That’s all I ever wanted to do as a kid, I never wanted anything else besides to play for the Bulldogs.”