Storm speedster Coates aiming high against Panthers
With two NRL clubs, 85 games, 10 State of Origin appearances and a Test cap to his name, it’s easy to forget that Xavier Coates is only 23.
But the towering Melbourne winger is built to get places in a hurry.
It hasn’t always been that way – a gangly kid, Coates contemplated giving rugby league away after repeatedly missing representative teams.
Born in Papua New Guinea and with a string of Queensland school athletics records to his name, Coates wanted to compete under the flag of his mother, Edith, at the Olympics.
But a pep talk from Melbourne NRL greats Greg Inglis and Matt Geyer, who was a teacher at his school, helped keep him in the game.
And ahead of Sunday’s grand final against Penrith, the Storm couldn’t be happier.
Victory would see him become the third Kumul, following Marcus Bai (1999) and Justin Olam (2020), to win a premiership with the club.
Coates, or X as he is known, has become a Melbourne match-winner, with one of his high-flying efforts to steal victory from the Warriors in round two recognised as the Dally M try of the year.
He added another to his highlight reel in round 14, scoring a sensational diving try to help the Storm to a 36-28 win over Newcastle.
He and fellow winger Will Warbrick will be a major focus of the Storm attack at Accor Stadium as they look to stop the Panthers’ title run at three.
Coates, who played a Test for PNG against Samoa in 2019, said the pair pushed each other to new heights – figuratively and literally.
“Everyone wants to get better and Will’s been playing really good this year, so we’re always learning off each other and looking at things that we can do to better our game,” Coates said.
“We’re not looking to go out there and do anything fancy, we’re looking to just play our role for the team.
“We compete in the air sometimes at training, but we’re pretty smart about it because injuries can come from it, but we do a fair bit of training with it, trying to get something out of each session.”
He said Melbourne’s tight wins, such as the Warriors match, with his try coming with 25 seconds on the clock, had given his team belief they could topple Penrith.
“I think it’s just all the prep we’ve done, the pre-season that we had and collecting all those tight wins,” said Coates, who missed nine games with a hamstring injury.
“It’s built confidence throughout the group, knowing that when we go into those big games that we can perform.”
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