Best Who Never Made It - Part 4: Quensland fullback Mitcham Ardler lawn bowls over league

It was the most shocking code switch Coombabah State High coach Rod Pryor had ever seen. His star fullback had walked in to his office and said he wouldn’t be playing rugby league any more. SUBSCRIBE TO READ MORE

25/6/11 Round 16 NYC Toyota Cup action between the Gold Coast Titans and the Cronulla Sharks from Skilled Park, Robina. Mitch Ardler. Pics Adam Head

IT was the most shocking code switch Coombabah State High School coach Rod Pryor had ever seen.

Mitcham Ardler, the incumbent Queensland under-16s fullback with a scything running game that reminded him of Raiders great Ken Nagas, had walked in to his office one morning with a request that bordered on nonsensical.

“He came to me and said, ‘Sir, I don’t want to play rugby league this year,’” Pryor said.

“He’d gone out with one of his family members to a lawn bowls club, had a roll and realised he was pretty good at it.

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Mitcham Ardler, 16, represented Queensland in the curtain raiser before State of Origin 1 in Melbourne.

“He told me he wasn’t going to play this year because he liked lawn bowls better.

“I rang his mum, she said he wanted to do it and that was that.”

So sparked one of the most bizarre dual-code sporting careers in Gold Coast junior sporting history.

The Brisbane Broncos-contracted junior walked away from the sport, winning bowls tournaments across the Coast before returning to rugby league the following year.

Coaches and teammates alike were ecstatic the young star was back.

“He was a great student coming through, laid-back but athletic,” Pryor said.

“There were numerous times in the Super 8 competitions where he’d get the ball on the 20 or 30, glide across the field to get on the outside and scythe straight through.

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25/6/11 Round 16 NYC Toyota Cup action between the Gold Coast Titans and the Cronulla Sharks from Skilled Park, Robina. Mitch Ardler. Pics Adam Head

“He had a great fend and would score 70 or 80 metre tries from kick return.

“In that 2010 side were numerous contracted boys with the Eels and Broncos, and together they went through to a few grand finals over their tenure.”

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Ardler signed with the Titans after school, representing them in the National Youth Competition and the Maroons at under-18 level in 2011.

But for all his talent, the rigours of professional football never sat easily with the lawn bowling outside back.

By 2013 Ardler had disappeared off the rugby league radar entirely, reappearing only briefly to play alongside a mate or two in the Runaway Bay reserves.