Josh Spasaro
Gun young Wests Tigers hooker Jake Simpkin wants 2022 to be the year he becomes a regular NRL player.
And with performances like the one he displayed in his Western Suburbs outfit’s fighting 28-18 loss to North Sydney in The Knock-On Effect NSW Cup at Leichhardt Oval on Sunday night, the 20-year-old could soon make that happen.
The junior Queensland representative, who played junior football for Souths Tigers in Toowoomba, was brilliant in attack and defence against the undefeated Bears.
His vision, constant probing runs out of dummy-half, passing game and leadership around the field were all outstanding.
When he shaped to go left, and then found second-rower Tom Freebairn on his right, it led to the back-rower spinning through Norths’ goal-line defence to level the scores at 12-all right on half-time.
Simpkin kept up the good work in the second half after a brilliant dart and show of strength from dummy-half – when powerful North Sydney forward Terrell May couldn’t stop him front-on – put his team up 18-12 in the 49th minute.
The talented hooker, who also led the tackle count reaching the magic 50 mark, was modest about his second-half try.
“We just needed some points, so I just tried to have a run and I was fortunate enough to get over the try line,” Simpkin told nswrl.com.au.
With regular Tigers No.9 Jacob Liddle back from a posterior cruciate knee injury suffered during the pre-season, Simpkin wants to provide good competition for that jersey in Michael Maguire’s team.
“I want to get some quality minutes down here, and then I want to be a week-in, week-out first grade player,” he said.
Simpkin was proud of the efforts of his teammates on Sunday night, but still feels there is plenty of upside left in the so-far winless Western Suburbs NSW Cup outfit.
“It was (a good team effort),” he said.
“We were a bit low on cattle with a few injuries, which hurt us a bit but I thought – I haven’t played (at NSW Cup level) the past couple of weeks – the boys were pretty good.
“We defended our try line well. We didn’t have much ball, but I feel we played well.
“It’s just about getting time together, and playing together, and getting the reps in together.
“I think once we do that, we’ll go a long way.”
