Izak Rankine crunched in Rising Star betting after stunning debut for Gold Coast Suns
Watch out Max King. The St Kilda young gun has a fight on his hands to claim this year’s Rising Star award after Gold Coast’s Izak Rankine was crunched into second favourite following his eye-catching debut.
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Izak Rankine insists his stunning soccer goal for the Gold Coast Suns on Saturday night was no fluke.
“I’ve been practising that since I was a baby in the streets with my brothers using trees and poles as goals,” the South Australian-bred talent said.
“We were always trying to be as creative as we could and we’d have a competition of who can kick the most freakish goals.
“The game’s so unpredictable that I want to make sure no matter what situation I get in that I can find the goals.”
The goal was one of three Rankine kicked against Melbourne in a performance which Brisbane great Jonathon Brown labelled “as an exciting a debut as I’ve seen”.
Rankine’s night — which also included 12 disposals and eight score involvements — earned him the Week 6 AFL NAB Rising Star nomination, an award he is now second-favourite to win.
The debut came 597 days after Rankine was selected at pick three by the Suns in the 2018 draft.
Hamstring and hip injuries wiped out Rankine’s 2019 campaign and he feared the worst when another hamstring injury hit at the start of this year.
“When I first got injured I didn’t think it would drag on this long but I hurt my hamstring again and again and it started to build doubts in my mind that I’d ever get back to playing consistent, good footy,” Rankine said.
“When my year started with another hamstring, I started thinking about last year and how that all went down and I was just praying it wouldn’t go that way again.”
Rankine worked closely with Suns’ psychologist Tristan Coulter as seemingly never-ending stints in rehabilitation took their toll.
“I saw a lot of the boys come in rehab and then leave rebab,” Rankine said.
“I made sure I had the support around me and didn’t let those four walls close in on me.
“But now my body’s as strong as ever and I’m as fit as I ever was.”
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Rankine recently moved in with teammate Sam Collins, who has become a major mentor.
“He’s just been a good role model for me,” Rankine said of Collins.
“He’s taught me that much. He’s pretty much the ultimate professional and he’s there to make sure I’m staying on track off the field.”
Izak Rankine’s three goals in his debut game 🔥🔥🔥 pic.twitter.com/lp1YYrTH5k
— 7AFL (@7AFL) July 11, 2020
Teammates describe Rankine as a Tik-Tok loving, guitar-playing, rap-singing quiet but cheeky kid with a good sense of humour and his manager, Dimitris Parhas, said he needed that to get through 2019.
“No doubt it was quite frustrating for him, he worked so bloody hard on so many occasions,” Parhas said.
“Not many know this but after Round 1 when the competition was put on hold he only came back to Adelaide for two weeks then he elected to go back early, he went back up (to the Gold Coast) and lived and trained with Sam Collins and focused purely on his return.”
Rankine’s parents Ronald and Kerry made the trip to Sydney for his debut on the weekend and Parhas spoke to him twice before the game.
“He called me to let me know he’d been selected on the Thursday and it was a pretty emotional moment to be honest, because it had been a long time coming and he’d been through a fair bit,” Parhas said.
“He’s such a good kid whenever he comes back to Adelaide my wife cooks a big Greek meal for him and he loves singing songs with my kids, so on the Friday we sent him a nice good luck message.
“After the game we were texting and he was on cloud nine, and he still is now.”
It took Izak Rankine less than two minutes to kick an incredible goal!#JLTSeries pic.twitter.com/xbVxtdfPDo
— AFL (@AFL) March 3, 2019
TAB AFL RISING STAR ODDS
Max King (StK) $3.50
Izak Rankine (GC) $4
Tom Green (GWS) $11
Matthew Rowell (GC) $13
Caleb Serong (Fre) $13
*Odds correct as of 8am Tuesday, July 14
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WHO’S THE BETTER PROSPECT — RANKINE OR LUKOSIUS?
Simeon Thomas-Wilson and Liz Walsh
As South Australia’s Under 18 coach Tony Bamford got asked the question on numerous occasions – who’s a better prospect Jack Lukosius or Izak Rankine?
“I always said Izak’s small, Jack’s tall you take your pick,” Bamford said.
“I couldn’t split them really.
“The only way I did in the end was that Jack will probably give you a bit more consistency early, but you could counter that by saying Izak could win you a grand final if you get there.”
The 2018 AFL Draft will go down in history as one of the best after the starts players such as No. 1 pick Sam Walsh, Lukosius (No. 2), Max King (No. 4), Connor Rozee (No. 5), Bailey Smith (No. 7) and Tarryn Thomas (No. 8) have made to their careers.
And the player widely considered as the most talented of that draft class hasn’t even played yet – although this will change when No. 3 pick Rankine debuts for Gold Coast against Melbourne on Saturday.
A SANFL debut for West Adelaide at just 16, and likened to Adelaide great Andrew McLeod in the way he plays, the hype has been around Rankine for years.
An outstanding Under 18s national carnival as a 17-year-old further increased the hype and in his final year in the SA underage program his performance for the Croweaters in their championship-clinching win over Vic Metro – five goals and 17 disposals – put him in the mix to go No. 1.
“It was almost like he was saving himself for the big show,” Bamford said.
But hamstring and hip injuries meant he didn’t get a chance at AFL level last year, and made him wait for his chance in 2020.
Bamford said this actually may be a positive for the talented forward who was always playing each week in Adelaide.
“And the fact he has to wait for it is going to be good for Izak, it would have been a long time for Izak to have been waiting to be picked because he has always played above himself in SA,” he said.
“It would have challenged him sitting out and watching games and he would have seen what people like Sam Walsh and Jack Lukosius would have done in their first years.
“That would have lit a fire in his belly and he will be hellbent on coming out and showing the AFL world he is good as those two and Connor Rozee.
“Even sitting back now and watching what Matthew Rowell has done at Gold Coast in his first few games Izak would be wanting to have a similar impact as to what he had I would imagine.”
Originally published as Izak Rankine crunched in Rising Star betting after stunning debut for Gold Coast Suns