The Broncos discards that can inspire Selwyn Cobbo to rekindle his love for rugby league

Selwyn Cobbo is down and out but he doesn’t have to look far for inspiration. Rejection can be the potent stimulant in sport as several rejected, overlooked or cut former Broncos can attest to.

Selwyn Cobbo doesn’t have to look far to find inspiration in rugby league. Picture: NRL

If Selwyn Cobbo wants to put some new motivational posters on his wall, try these … Tom Dearden, Dane Gagai, Jai Arrow, Kodi Nikorima, Jamayne Isaako and Zac Hosking.

Then there’s Kurt Capewell, Cameron Munster and Max Plath.

All of the above prove one thing … being rejected, overlooked or cut by the Broncos is not the end of the road.

For a significant number of players it actually points them to a brighter world, which is what the Dolphins could be for Cobbo.

Recent history is littered with players who were either not signed or cast aside by the club and went on to star elsewhere.

It calls into question what went wrong with them at Red Hill. Did they find the bright lights too intimidating? Was their talent not properly nurtured?

Or was it simply a matter of the spur of being overlooked or rejected by the Broncos roused them in the way that being overlooked by Rod Marsh for the Australian Cricket Academy motivated batting great Matt Hayden for his entire career?

Rejection can be the potent stimulant in sport. Each player had a different tilt to their story.

Dearden left with his self-esteem crushed after starting in the soul-destroying Anthony Seibold era but rose to become a State of Origin star with the Cowboys.

Capewell was squeezed out due to salary cap concerns and the feeling that he was physically “done’’ but has played extra well for the Warriors and now Queensland.

Gagai and Isaako are particularly relevant to Cobbo for different reasons.

Gagai, like Cobbo an Indigenous star cut by the Broncos in his early 20s, paid the price for a few minor off-field disciplinary lapses when his life became unbalanced after being instructed to put on weight.

“I really struggled putting on weight,’’ Gagai once said.

“They wanted big outside backs so I’d stay up late trying to eat, I’d get up in the early hours of the morning to eat. Then that just got a bit tough and I was late to a few sessions.’’

Gagai may not have been the most straightforward person to deal with but he has since played another 14 years, 300 first grade games and had a decorated State of Origin career.

But if Cobbo chooses just one poster it may be the man on the opposite wing as him at the Dolphins ... Isaako.

The season before he joined the Dolphins, Isaako fell through the bottom of the NRL after leaving the Broncos then being sent by the Titans back to play for the Tweed Heads Seagulls before joining the Dolphins, where he has become one of the competition’s best buys.

JAMIE’S MESSAGE

The Queensland side would do well to follow the tips that Australian hockey great Jamie Dwyer gave it before Origin II in next week’s Sydney decider.

Asked in an impromptu question and answer by Billy Slater to tell the team in camp the things that mattered to him in a big game, Dwyer rattled off three points.

They were … 1. Think hard about your time without the ball and cut down the time and space of your key opponents;
2. With the ball be sharp and aware of what you will do before you get it; 3. Don’t stress about outcomes. Say to yourself “if these guys are going to beat me I am going to be at my best”.

“I think that one resonated with them because they played poorly in the first game but as you got older you started thinking about ones you lost because you were not at your best and they were the ones that hurt the most,’’ Dwyer said.

Jamie Dwyer’s words inspired the Maroons in Game II. Picture: Grant Treeby/treebyimages

PERFECT CALL

There’s an old theory that to be a decent rugby league caller you firstly need to be a good conversationalist who can kick it around with the common man over a beer.

It certainly made sense when Fox League’s outstanding callers Warren Smith and Dan Ginnane kindly dropped in to post-show drinks after The Back Page’s final episode and were both exceptional company.