When 17 year old Nicholas Cooke decided to join the Gungahlin Jets playing group in 2015, few would have been able to foresee the impact he has made nine rounds into the season.
by Lucas O'Neill, AFL Canberra Journalist
Cooke has spent the past five years travelling down the highway to play for Culcairn in the Hume league, enjoying a magnitude of success topped off by being awarded the Hume League Under 17 Best and Fairest last season.
However entering his final year of school at Lake Ginninderra College, Cooke decided that he would no longer like to make the trip down the highway each week.
Trying to find a local club to play for proved no challenge, when he discovered his former Under 12’s coach Adrian Pavese was head coach of Gungahlin Cooke didn’t have to think twice before joining the Jets.
Cooke admits that his fast tracked transition into senior football has not been easy, however now nine rounds in, he is starting to feel very comfortable playing at the top level.
“The game is definitely more intense, running wise, it’s more physical, but also a lot more mental," Cooke said.
“I would have to say that it is definitely more of a mental game, strategy wise as well as the structures that we have to put in"
“Pav [Adrian Pavese] is always giving us structures to follow and if we don’t follow them then the other teams can really hurt us.”
Walking into a new club as a 17 year old is never easy and Cooke admits that the first couple of weeks were nervous times but he is now comfortable around the entire playing group.
“At the start I did definitely find it difficult, on the mental side of things we always give 100 percent but it was definitely hard,"
“The main reason for me coming to the club was because I had faith in Pav [Adrian Pavese], he coached me in Under 12's and when I heard he was coaching, I knew he would do a lot of good things for the club so I ended up moving over"
“I am feeling 100 percent more confident now that I have got to know the boys and the game plan, I feel like I can now go out there and take the game on a bit more.”
Cooke believes that whilst their have certainly been some challenging times for the Jets in the early part of 2015, the future is very bright for the club.
“I would say we have improved 100 percent, you know after the first game against Queanbeyan where we lost by over 100 points to last week when we were five points down during the third quarter against them, it’s a massive step up,"
“The whole team has really stepped up, everyone is just a lot more confident in how we play our game and how they play their position.”
Whilst very humble Cooke concedes his personal form has been “pretty good” he knows there is still a lot of improvement to make, stating that “sticking to the team structures” is the most important thing he must remember for the remainder of the year.
The Jets will need Cooke and the entire team to be at their best on Saturday when they travel to Tuggeranong to take on a red hot Hawks team who are coming off their biggest win of the season.
Last Modified on 03/07/2015 17:03