NRL 2022: Jeremiah Nanai puts hand up to wear green-and-gold jumper for World Cup
He waved the Samoan flag after Queensland’s epic Origin series triumph, but now this Cowboys young gun says he’s ready for an Australian baptism if coach Mal Meninga wants him.
Jeremiah Nanai has pledged his allegiance to Australia as the Cowboys young gun looks to complete a dream season by clinching a maiden green-and-gold jumper for the World Cup.
While several big-name Origin stars have ruled out representing Australia at next month’s international showpiece in England, Nanai says he is relishing the prospect of a Kangaroos debut in a boost for Test coach Mal Meninga.
NSW trio Brian To’o (Samoa), Daniel Tupou (Tonga) and Siosifa Talakai (Tonga) have pledged their allegiance to second-tier Pacific nations, while Maroons prop Josh Papalii — a veteran of 11 Tests for Australia — has also chosen Samoa.
Nanai, born in New Zealand to Samoan parents, posed with the Samoan flag after Queensland’s epic Origin series win this year, fuelling speculation the Cowboys sensation would follow the lead of Papalii.
But after knocking back the Kiwis to chase an Origin jumper this season, Nanai is committed to the green-and-gold cause and says he is ready for an Australian baptism if Meninga wants him.
“I would love to play for Australia,” Nanai said.
“I’m eligible for Samoa as well but I’ve always seen myself as a proud Queenslander and if the opportunity ever came where I could represent Australia, I would be very happy to put on that green and gold jumper.
“At the moment, it’s not the main thing on my mind, I am focused on finals footy and then at the end of the season, I will look to the World Cup and see what happens.
“Hopefully I am picked for Australia, but if I’m not, then I will make myself available for Samoa. That would be another big opportunity as well, it would be a great chance to represent my family and their culture at the World Cup.”
The Cowboys’ fairytale season has put Nanai firmly in the World Cup frame.
Since Australia’s last Test in 2019, Kangaroos skipper Boyd Cordner has retired and his second-row partner Tyson Frizell has struggled for form at the Knights, opening the door for a new wave of back-rowers headlined by Nanai and Penrith’s Liam Martin.
Nanai has had a remarkable first full season of NRL, scoring 17 tries from 22 games, and says his shock call-up to the Queensland Origin side in June has given him the confidence to compete on the code’s biggest stages.
Nanai played a key role in the Cowboys’ epic 32-30 golden-point finals defeat of Cronulla last week. Over the next month, he could play in his first grand final, possibly win a premiership, and represent the Kangaroos.
“It’s been one hell of a year for myself,” said Nanai, whose Cowboys will enjoy a week off ahead of their home grand-final qualifier against Parramatta or Canberra in Townsville.
“I wasn’t thinking about Origin at all this year, I was just thinking about playing well in an 80-minute role for the Cowboys, but stepping up for Queensland has helped my confidence.
“I had great players in Origin camp and I learnt a lot from coaches like Billy Slater.
“It’s served me well coming back to the Cowboys.
“It’s been a long year but my body is still feeling good. Mentally it can be tough at times. I can’t believe the year I’ve had, it’s great to be in the finals and now we are one win away from the big one.
“Everyone doubted us (the Cowboys) but we proved to everyone we are a top-eight team.
“We have gotten this far and hopefully we get the win next week and get to play in a grand final.”
Remarkable bargain buys drive Cowboys’ title push
- Robert Craddock
These days he is rugby league’s $10 million dollar man but there was a memorable night in Townsville when it took just $2000 and two pizzas to get Jason Taumalolo to sign on the dotted line.
One was eaten by Taumalolo’s dad. The other by the man – or should we say the boy — himself.
He was just 14. Taumalolo was playing in Townsville as part of a New Zealand schools team and former Cowboys recruiter Clint Zammit saw enough in one match to organise a hasty dinner appointment that night.
“I just knew if I let him go back to New Zealand without signing him we would never see him again,’’ Zammit said.
“He was like nothing I had even seen before. A 14-year-old playing against 17-year-olds and so powerful with great feet.
“So I went to dinner in Palmer Street with Jason and his dad. The contract was for about $2000 and we sorted it out over a few pizzas. He came over and went to high school in Townsville. I think you could say he’s been a pretty fair investment.’’
He has indeed. Taumalolo is halfway through a 10-year, $10 million deal with the Cowboys and while there have been inevitable peaks and troughs he is now in the dam-busting form which has driven the Cowboys to within a match of the NRL grand final.
The Cowboys have been the stunning success story of the NRL season and the tapestry of their rise has many threads involving some deftly spotted recruits past and present, careful nurturing and – that increasingly rare quality in modern rugby league – patience.
Zammit, now with Newcastle with former Cowboys football director Peter Parr who left his own deep imprint on the club, first saw boom forward Tom Gilbert in the under-15s in Brisbane where he played rugby union for St Pat’s and then Brisbane Grammar School.
At an early fitness session with a Cowboys development group Zammit knew he made the right call when he was watching the youngsters do chin-ups.
“Tom was absolutely gone after doing nine chin-ups,’’ Zammit said. “But he went on and did 21. The kid after him managed just one. You see that and you just knew Tom had something.’’
Centre Peta Hiku has been one of the buys of the season and he joined the Cowboys following the presentation of an unusual theory from coach Todd Payten.
Payten showed the club recruiters numbers which confirmed that wingers who played outside Hiku had shone brightly and Kyle Feldt would do the same.
Reuben Cotter is a story that truly shows the value of patience. The club first signed him as a teenager but after three knee reconstructions they wondered whether he would ever crack the big time.
They were as shattered as he was. The kid was having a crack. But nothing was working.
Some clubs would have pulled the plug but small things weighed in Cotter’s favour.
The Cowboys noted that Cotter was never once late for physiotherapy or doctor’s appointments, that he followed his rehabilitation instructions to the letter and was as desperate and committed as anyone they had seen.
They figured if he never shaped up at least the deal had gone to someone who left nothing on the table. So he got a contract extension and could now lead them to a premiership.
“The club’s success this year really spells out more than ever what it means to have good pathway systems,’’ said former Cowboy star Brent Tate. “These kids have been in the system for a long time. They love the club. They care about it. That hasn’t always been the case with some of the recruits. They are a really tight group who socialise together. It helps.’’
Small man with a big dream brought NRL to North Queensland
No-one will have to drive a stage coach through the streets of Sydney firing a toy pistol to get the Cowboys noticed over the next fortnight.
After spending most of the winter being treated like a feel good story if not a major threat, the Cowboys have burst into the spotlight with a thrilling win over the Sharks and will now return to their magnificent new stadium to play for a place in the NRL grand final.
That spotlight hasn’t always been easy to find.
They say to fully understand what you have achieved in life you really must understand where you’ve been so the timing of the authorised biography Bowie is as sweet as a Valentine Holmes field goal.
Written by author Murray Barnett (and available at thecreativewriter.com.au/bowie) the compelling tale captures the novel journey of Kerry Boustead, one of the sport’s greatest wingers who was a tireless, pivotal voice in his oft-neglected region securing a team in the national league competition in 1995.
As an 18-year-old in 1978, devout North Queenslander Boustead completed one of the most stunning representative surges the game has seen when he rocketed through the system to play for Australia after just four club games in Innisfail.
For all of Boustead’s reputation as a fearless defender and electric attacker who played well above his weight, it was his pioneering post playing career crusade for the Cowboys that displayed his true fibre.
The book tells the remarkable story of the day Boustead delivered the Cowboys’ pitch for inclusion in the NRL to the game’s decision makers by hiring a stage coach pulled by four Clydesdales.
Dressed in cowboy gear complete with a toy pistol, Boustead arrived at the game’s headquarters in Phillip Street, Sydney, to deliver a petition signed by 20,000 North Queenslanders from 133 different towns and cities.
The bosses were also serenaded at a lunch with Bowen mango and equally succulent north Queensland mudcrabs.
The Cowboys needed to be noticed and while out of luck that day, it helped convince the bosses they had a spirit all of their own. Three years later they were off and running.
“I wanted to help country players play footy without having to move to a big city and leave their family and friends behind,’’ said Boustead, who devoted five years of his life to setting up Cowboys before resigning when they joined Super League then re-joining the Cowboys board many years later.
It was Boustead’s wife Leigh who accidentally started the movement to call the club the Cowboys after she quipped “we are dealing with a bunch of Cowboys’’ when the Bousteads were flown to Townsville by the club for job interviews on standby fares to save money and were occasionally bumped off flights.
The Cowboys were so short of cash early that they could only afford to pay Boustead $50,000 of his $60,000 deal and his company car became a late 1960s Kingswood – yes, the Kingswood!
It was soon replaced by a 1979 Ford Falcon then a 1983 Fairlane which once broke down beside the road and Boustead, depressed and angry, walked home.
The Cowboys name was chosen following a public survey, outvoting the Crocodiles, Fairy Penguins, Mermaids, Scud Missiles, Bunyips, Galahs, Cane Toads, Mud Crabs and Cyclones.
There was no task above or beneath Boustead when he was Cowboys boss. Unable to match cashed up rivals, he recruited players by taking them fishing and showing them the charms of the far north.
He took turns sleeping at the ground with coach Grant Bell before the historic first match against the Bulldogs to make sure someone was there to switch on the sprinklers.
When a portaloo door flew open on match day Boustead noted to his horror that toilet paper was one thing everyone had forgotten so he rushed off and found some rolls for the 50 portaloos.
The dressing room air conditioning was fully installed at 11am on the morning of the first match.
They were tough, thrilling, exhausting days but the rich fruits are now there for all to see.
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