NRL 2024: How Jahrome Hughes went from a Titans, Cowboys reject to Dally M player of the year with Melbourne Storm
Jahrome Hughes was rejected by both the Titans and Cowboys after just one NRL appearance for both. Now he’s a Dally M winner on the cusp of a second premiership. See the inside story of how the Qld clubs fumbled the NRL’s No.1 player.
From Titanic reject to NRL glory.
Melbourne Storm’s Dally M champion Jahrome Hughes is on the cusp of adding another chapter to one of the game’s most remarkable stories of persistence.
Hughes, 29, has fought his way back from the NRL scrap heap not once, but twice, to be crowned the game’s best player of 2024.
Now he is 80 minutes away from adding a second premiership ring to a list of accolades growing by the year.
Fresh off clinching the NRL’s highest individual honour this week, Hughes will start at halfback for the Storm against Penrith in Sunday night’s grand final at Accor Stadium.
The Sydney Olympic stadium is 4000km from the Darwin ground where Hughes made his NRL debut for the Gold Coast Titans as a fullback in 2013.
Aged 18, Hughes was one of the Gold Coast’s hottest young talents, but the following year he was shown the door by a dysfunctional Titans club hurtling towards NRL administration.
He spent the next three years in the rugby league wilderness, opting to have another crack with reserve grade outfit the Townsville Blackhawks.
The Cowboys gave Hughes another shot at the NRL in 2016 – a one-off appearance at five-eighth – before also pointing him towards the exit.
Two NRL games in four season was all the New Zealand product could muster after being a state champion at renowned league nursery Palm Beach Currumbin High School on the Gold Coast.
“He could have quit,” said Hughes’ former coach at PBC, Rod Patison.
“He has shown tremendous persistence. That is a huge factor.
“A lot of blokes get a game or two in the NRL on ability, especially when they’re not at the right club and are being picked on moments.
“But when you make it at a great club like he has, after going through the ringer and chasing it so hard, it’s a great example to young blokes of the courage, persistence and toughness required to make it.
“It’s great to see him doing such a good job in a game he’s always loved, and he looks like he’s really enjoying it.
“Footy teams are built on character and you don’t get many better characters than Jahrome Hughes.”
Aged 22 and without an NRL future in North Queensland, Hughes finally received the lifeline he had been searching for when the Melbourne Storm came knocking.
He made four sporadic appearances at fullback and five-eighth for the Storm during the club’s 2017 premiership season, not featuring in the finals series.
Hughes filled in at fullback for an injured Billy Slater at times throughout his final NRL season in 2018 then secured the No. 1 jersey full-time in 2019.
But Melbourne’s doubts about the premiership credentials of halfback Brodie Croft saw coach Craig Bellamy shift Hughes to halfback late in 2019 and he has owned the Storm’s No.7 jersey since.
A maiden NRL premiership followed in 2020 and now Hughes has been anointed the game’s best player of 2024 after winning the Dally M Medal despite being deducted six points for suspension and sitting out a game late in the season.
While the Titans continue to churn through halfbacks, Hughes is now New Zealand’s first-choice No.7 and has a contract for life at the Storm.
“I’m very proud of him as a person,” said Storm chairman Matt Tripp.
“He and Molly (wife) have been great for the club and you talk about loyalty and the loyalty he’s shown. He has been made bigger offers over the years from other clubs. He’s been an incredibly loyal person.
“Jahrome came here as a fullback and almost a discarded one at other clubs.
“For Craig to bring him in and see something in him that could make him a halfback and then give him that opportunity and let him flourish in that role, it comes down to the brilliance of Craig and being able to put people in the right positions and let them flourish.
“Jahrome still had to execute on that and still had to back himself and do it, but he’s worked really hard on his kicking game, his passing game, the way he sees the game, and he’s had to work harder here. He really feels like his best football is in front of him.
“It feels like that these next few years, we’re all going to be at our best as a side – money permitting.”
Hughes was lost to the Titans at the end of 2014 during a change of coaches from John Cartwright to Neil Henry.
At the time his manager, Tas Bartlett, told this masthead: “Jahrome played first grade as an 18-year-old (but) they don’t think he’s up to it.”
Patison said Bellamy was the coach Hughes needed to realise his potential.
“That happens in rugby league,” he said.
“It’s a lot of pressure and a rushed situation. It’s all about timing.
“I don’t know who was playing fullback and halfback at the Titans at the time, but it’s a matter of falling into the right opportunity at the right time.
“Jahrome got the right opportunity at the right time with one of the best coaches the game’s ever seen.
“I don’t see it as though he was staring the Titans and Cowboys in the eyes and they missed it. He went on to use his skillset in a slightly different way and it happened eventually.
“He’s always had a fantastic work ethic and love for self-improvement. He was an academic excellence kid at school.
“Some kids don’t improve for as long in their careers as he has. But because he’s such a student of self-improvement, it’s happened.
“To get through the system and really crack first grade, you need the ability and to get the right coaches at the right times.
“It took so much persistence and courage to get there.”
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