The roundabout rise of Reuben Cotter: Schoolboy star to sidelines and NRL potential realised

At the start of 2016 he was soaring as one of the best young rugby league players in the country. In North Queensland, legend has it that South Sydney captain Cameron Murray was moved from lock to the second row to accommodate Cotter in the No.13 jersey for the Australian Schoolboys team in 2015.

Some gentle research has uncovered that the rumour is just that – but the truth is he was one of the first picked players in that dynamite team. This young kid from Sarina, full of promise and guts, was a must-have in a stacked young side.

“That story is not true. At the time Cameron Murray was a sensational hole-running second-rower, so he was picked in the second row,” says the Australian Schoolboys coach of that year Brian Battese.

“Reuben was the Queensland No.9 in under-18s, I watched him at the Queensland Schoolboy trials and the Australian Schoolboy trials and he was trialling as a 13. I also had (Cronulla hooker) Blayke Brayley in that team so I was happy with him trialling at lock. If something happened to Blayke, I didn’t have to carry another hooker on the bench, because he was so versatile.

But shortly after those two games in the green and gold, Cotter’s hopes for a similar rise were dashed, his next three years spent on the sidelines nursing two major injuries that changed his life.

Maybe for the better.

Now 23, Cotter is just starting to rediscover the footing that earned him such high praise as a teenager, with a Queensland Origin jersey firmly in his sights.

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Until 2016, Cotter’s life had been fairly blessed, revolving around rugby league.

Growing up in the small town of Sarina, south of Mackay, he played footy for the Crocodiles on the weekend and footy for school during the week.

Once he started making representative teams, his parents Ashanti and Terry Cotter moved Reuben, older brother Malik and younger sister Ayla to Mackay to knock out some of the travelling they were doing. Early indications were Reuben had what it takes to be anything.

That promise was confirmed when he made the Australian Schoolboys team in 2015, his final year of school.

“That was a pretty good team, that team. It was stacked,” he tells CodeSports.

“I finished high school footy so I was full of confidence and ready to rip in and play some under 20s, but then it all happened obviously and I missed out.”

The first ACL was the hardest to come to terms with. But between 2016 and 2018, Cotter underwent four surgeries to repair two ACL tears, both in his left knee. The string of bad luck sidelined him for three years after just two games of under-20s for the Cowboys.

“The first one was in round two of the under-20s season in 2016,” he explains.

“I was taking a carry off the dummy half and just stepped on it the wrong way and felt a pop and that was it. I didn’t know what it was at first because I never knew much about knees and ACLs and things like that.

“It was my first major injury too, so I wasn’t expecting it. It was my first year, my second game.

“At first I was in shock, I didn’t know what they were talking about. When they said you’ll be out of footy for 12 months, I didn’t know what to believe and I was devastated. I didn’t know how to handle it.”

Mum and dad had moved to Townsville from Mackay with him, so he had support. But still. He was shattered.

“That first knee was tough but I got stuck into it… but then I came back for the next season and it was the week of round one,” he continues.

“I got a call up to train with the main NRL squad and I came out of hooker and stepped off it the wrong way again and tore it again.

“I was pretty rattled after that, but I knew what to expect. I knew what I was in for the next time around.

“After a few weeks I was switched on and back into it, I knew what surgeries I needed. But it wasn’t going to be 12 months this time, it was going to be an 18-month recovery.”

The first surgery the second time around didn’t go to plan, so he sought another opinion from a highly regarded Brisbane-based orthopaedic surgeon, Dr Peter Myers, who had worked on the likes of Darren Lockyer.

“I thought, this guy is the best surgeon in the business, I’ll go to him and get it done and it ended up being great,” Cotter says.

“He was very thorough, my knee was great and feeling really good. It was two surgeries. They had to fill the hole up in my knee with bone, let the bone heal over six months, and then go back and they had to drill a fresh hole in my knee for the ACL to go through, and then 18 months later I was good to go.”

While his teammates were progressing in their rugby league careers, Cotter turned to the books. He’d enrolled in a business degree at James Cook University to keep his mind active while nursing the first injury, but fate interrupted again to give him the free time to finish the three-year course.

“I ended up being injured for the most part of three years and that was the length of the degree, so I just knuckled down and I finished it,” he says.

“I guess you could call it (bad luck). I thought it was a blessing in disguise, it was bad that I was injured but I got a degree out of it. I learnt how to eat properly, how to treat injuries, I learned a lot about my body and how to look after it. All that little stuff that I probably didn’t know before. A lot of positive stuff came out of it.”

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You could forgive him for wondering if the universe was trying to send him a sign, but Cotter maintained a laser focus on his goal to be an NRL player. He finally made an emotional debut in 2019 off the bench against Manly in round 13, which is a testament to how easy it would have been for him to give up, but didn’t.

Cotter knew he was young and time was on his side. He knew he could make it. So, he learned how to run differently, how to eat properly and how to maintain his body as best as he possibly can.

Because, the way he plays – head first and without fear – injuries are bound to happen.

“I don’t look at it too seriously, I take it as it comes,” he says.

“I’m not thinking about it anymore, which is what you want, I’m not as cautious now. But my whole run has changed. I feel like I’ve had to change how I step.

“Obviously my style of footy doesn’t help with injuries but I just sort of do what I can to make sure I’m ready and try to look after my body as best as I can and if something happens, something happens.

“I reckon I have (always played like that), it’s just now everyone is a bit bigger than me. That probably doesn’t help. The way I look at it is I just go for it.”

Having three years off to learn about his body helped Cotter enormously on his return to rugby league. In 2021 he set the Cowboys club record for four minutes and 33 seconds in the 1.2km time trial and he’s pound-for-pound one of the strongest athletes at the club. He’s a dummy half, but can and will play anywhere in the middle of the field.

The mental toughness he developed early helped him endure other injuries since too, including a lisfranc injury last season that sidelined him for four months. It’s been a stop-start ride, but each time he comes back better. Since his NRL debut in 2019 he’s played 25 games, four of which have come this season.

But above and beyond playing a full season of NRL, his next goal is to make the Queensland State of Origin side, continuing the representative path he started back in Sarina when he was just a kid. He played under-18s for the Maroons, but was injured when it came around to play under-20s.

He wants to be noticed for the senior squad, and if his start to the season is anything to go by, it won’t be long if his minutes and energy stay high.

“Just to play a full season of NRL first, it’s something that I haven’t got in the past three years, so that first of all and then I’d also like to make the Origin squad as well and be a part of that group this year,” he says.

“It goes without saying that we want to play finals.

“I’m feeling good, feeling fit and I’m stringing a few games together so hopefully I can continue on that path.”