Paul Gallen has found his heir in the Cronulla Sharks strongest man, 21-year-old Jack Williams
AMIDST the loud clang of leg-press plates and stereo-beats, Paul Gallen peered across the sweaty weights room, searching for his next black-booker, which is where Jack Williams pops up.
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AMIDST the loud clang of leg-press plates and stereo-beats, Paul Gallen peered across the sweaty weights room, searching for his next black-booker.
For years now, that’s been Gallen’s thing.
Every pre-season, the Sharks veteran identifies a player, maybe even two.
Not just a gym-session buddy, but that raw-boned rookie, who he sees potential in challenging, leading and nudging towards their NRL dream.
And so last October, Gallen stopped at Jack Williams, 21.
The robust forward from Cooma was dead-lifting 200kg like he was emptying plates from a dishwasher.
Gallen, who has long been regarded as the strongest Shark of all, had found his man.
“He was just doing it easy. It wasn’t that he wasn’t trying, I just felt he could do more,’’ Gallen said.
“I’ve done it to (Sosaia) Feki (Sharks winger) over the years, I’ll go and add five kilos more on the bar. And sure enough, “Fek’ could do it.
“Sometimes you’ve got to give guys a push, for them to realise they can be better.
“But Jack he destroyed me. Anything I did, he did and then more.
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“He does weights and he’s not even straining.’’
Quite incredibly, Williams is the strongest at the club, able to bench (170kg), squat (220kg) and dead-lift (240kg) more than seasoned strong-men including Gallen, Feki, Jason Bukuya, Luke Lewis and Andrew Fifita.
Which, ahead of his fourth NRL appearance against the Brisbane Broncos at Shark Park on Saturday night, is the funny irony of the who-is-Jack-Williams-story.
“Even up until I was 16, I had no idea what a weight was,’’ Williams said.
From the age of six, Williams played all his junior footy with the Cooma Colts.
The Colts played in the Canberra competition, which meant his mum and dad would wake every Saturday at 6.30am, driving two hours each-way for their boy to play footy.
With a slender frame, Williams filled every position in the juniors, including fullback, before developing into a forward when he was scouted by the Raiders at 15.
Two years later, still in High School and having just finished a season with Canberra’s SG Ball side, Williams weighed a tackle-friendly, 78kg.
“And so that was when me and a few mates knew that we had to try and get bigger like the other boys in the team,’’ Williams said.
“Outside of training we started to go to a local gym in Canberra.
“We had a trainer who said to try and eat every two hours.
“So that was set in my head, ‘I’ve got to eat every two hours.’
“I remember I just ate so much. I was trying to do weights as much as I could.
“I was doing gym twice a day and and I was just pumping myself with food.
“Mum would always cook up the best meals and I would take them to school and heat them up every two hours.
“If I was in class, I’d be snacking, just trying to do everything I could.
“I finished my first year of SG Ball weighing 78kg and I came back 10-weeks later before the under-20s at over 90kg.’’
In 2016, his final year in Canberra, Williams thrived in the under-20s backrow, catching the eye of the Sharks who offered him a move to the Shire, before finishing the season as the Raiders NYC Player of the Year.
Identified as the next in-line for when Gallen and Lewis hang up their boots, Williams was promoted into the Sharks Intrust Super Premiership side last year.
However, a serious hamstring injury dogged his desired impact upon arrival to the Shire.
But with dedication to rehabilitation, including private yoga sessions and a deliberate move by the coaching staff to shift the powerful Williams to the middle - and out of the backrow - the politely-spoken Shark has done what few 21-year-old’s could do.
From Shane Flanagan’s bench, Williams now part of one of the most damaging packs in the NRL.
“I’ve got to keep improving and play like its my last game every week, so I can cement my spot,’’ Williams said.
“I’m in incredible hands with the coaching staff here, it’s a great culture and it’s up to me to repay the team who gave me my dream.
“They’ve (Sharks forward pack) got so much experience among them, so I’m just trying to take on board as much as I can.
“Hopefully, I can continue to learn and improve and ultimately build myself up to be a leader of the club.’’
Just like Gallen would want him too.
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