Real big on ticker - Shortest player in Rugby League?

[DIEHARD]

Real big on ticker


Travis Cook at 153cm tall is all heart

HE makes pint-sized Gold Coast Titan Preston Campbell look like a giant and could easily beat champion jockey Damien Oliver in a limbo contest.

But ask anyone at the Burleigh Bears about 153cm-tall hooker Travis Cook and they will tell you that what he lacks in height, he more than makes up for in heart.

The 20-year-old is thought to be the shortest player involved in a senior Australian rugby league competition and is fast becoming a cult hero with Burleigh crowds after bursting into their FOGS Cup side this year.

"He is the bloke all his teammates want in the side," said Bears chief executive Adrian Vowles.

"He just brings so much to a team. What he lacks in size and weight he makes up for in toughness, ability, speed and pure heart."

Raised in Armidale, Cook was a late convert to rugby league, taking up the game when he was 17 after moving to the Gold Coast and attending Palm Beach Currumbin High School.

He had a stint with the Tweed Coast Raiders before joining Burleigh Bears last year and playing in the colts competition.

The 72kg rake, who works as a greenkeeper at Robina bowls club during the week, scored a try and set up another to help the Bears FOGS Cup side to a season-opening 38-6 win over Wynnum last Saturday.

The pocket dynamo has now set his sights on cracking the Queensland Cup later this year.

"I have heard a few people say 'he is too small for the game' and things like that," said Cook.


"But I have just kept playing my own game and don't worry about what anyone else says.

"You have just got to have a bit of mongrel about you, it doesn't matter how big or small you are.

"If someone gets hurt or something hopefully I will get the chance to make the next step up (to Queensland Cup). I reckon I would be able to step up to it."

Former Brisbane Bronco Ian Lacey at 165cm is widely regarded as the smallest NRL player in recent history.

Respected rugby league statistician David Middleton said Cook would definitely be among the shortest players to ever play the game at a reasonable level.

"The shortest on my records is Mark Shulman, who was 155cm and a halfback for St George in the 1970s," said Middleton.

"But at 153cm it would put him in the very smallest category."

The Bears host their first home games of the season today at Pizzey Park, with all three grades taking on Souths Logan, starting with the colts from 4pm.

http://www.goldcoast.com.au

[titansrawesome]

holy sh** !!

[DIEHARD]

Great for Rugby League ey. I wanna see him play!