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BOYD Cordner went for his first road run aged three.
Having caught dad Chris, a retired leaguie, lacing his sneakers at the back door, the little fella immediately dropped all toys while dismissing requests to stay home with grandma.
And so, off they went.
Dad adopting something of a slow, Cliffy Young shuffle for what he thought would be to the end of the street. Or maybe down to that paddock he so often cut through.
The full list of the 21 best young guns
Convinced that while certainly no great athlete himself, his boy, a scrawny kid not even in primary school, would last only minutes before returning home to nan.
"But Boyd never did stop," he says. "We ran almost 5km."
Speaking now from his Forster home on the NSW north coast, plumber Chris Cordner is trying to explain the heartbeat of a son who just happens to be the best Gen Y player in the game.
After extensive analysis involving coaches, scouts and Fox Sports Statistics, Cordner has topped a hit-list of league's best players aged 21 or younger.
It's a result so comprehensive that, when presenting recruitment guru Peter Mulholland with all 61 eligible names, he didn't even need to read it.
"Put Boyd Cordner at No.1 for me," he says simply. "That kid is something out of the box."
But why? Well, speak to those who know him best and you'll hear how Boyd's success is built on an unshakeable determination, a tenacity, he has carried through his entire life.
And, sure, at first, the old man mistook this single-mindedness for sulking. Admitting he initially misread episodes like, when racing boys much older for flags at nippers, little Boyd was almost inconsolable with every placing of second or third.
"But he's just a kid with real desire," says Steve "Blocker" Roach, the Kangaroo legend who formed a favourable opinion of Cordner during Country camp.
"In a word, tough ... tough."
Call it a grit that comes in part from mum Lanai, a young woman whose determination to raise her two boys was the one thing cancer never took - not even during those final agonising days.
And dad Chris, the former lower grader with Illawarra, Canterbury and St George who, on suddenly becoming a single parent 16 years ago, would commute from the family home in Old Bar to Sydney because, well, that's where the money was.
There's Bev and Joe Cordner, the grandparents who raised Boyd when dad was away, and older brother Dane providing exactly the type of guidance you'd expected of a future coalminer.
"But hanging Boyd's success on any of us, it's wrong," father Chris says. "Some things, people are just born with them."
While he may be something like a tricoloured Chuck Norris on field, off it Cordner remains polite, grounded, more humble than a Wednesday night bible group.
"But the attention, it's not my sort of thing, you know?" he'll say almost apologetically at Roosters HQ.
"I mean, I really appreciate things people are saying. But I just don't feel like anything I've done yet is worth talking about."
But surely his efforts in that Country jersey, and again on Anzac Day, were more than average?
"Ah, playing good football is easy with good people around you," Cordner continues. "Like when my brother and I were Knights juniors, Dad had come back home by then and would drive four hours to get us to and from training. Three times a week he drove while we slept ... how do you repay that?"
Well, playing your first NRL trial at 16 is a fair start. A rare honour gifted shortly after the schoolboy signed by then Roosters coach Brad Fittler.
"Yeah, gave him about 10 minutes against Parramatta," Freddy recalls. "And even back then he was so competitive. So willing.
"Got on the field and went as hard as anyone." Of course, one broken jaw and five knee operations slowed him somewhat.
Yet for Cordner, an agonising run of injuries that would eventually stretch three years only intensified the doggedness now defining him - propelling this footballer to the top of our list ahead of boom Bulldog David Klemmer, whose $1 million Canterbury contract resembled a Coles red spot special after recent efforts in that under-20s State of Origin game.
"And in a few years," said one scout, "expect Dave to be doing even better in the real thing."
Klemmer occupies the No.2 spot Jamal Idris owned in our 2011 list of the best young guns. Josh Dugan nudged out the likes of Will Hopoate, Kieran Foran and Ben Barba for the No.1 spot that year.
Among the more controversial selections is that of Rabbitoh George Burgess at 12, with the jury still not convinced he will reach the same NRL heights as forwards above him like Cordner.
"Oh, Boyd has Origin written all over him," enthuses Roach. "You'd love to know where he gets that toughness from and bottle it."
So too, apparently, would the kid himself. "Ah, no I'm not sure where it comes from," the young Rooster grins shyly. "Maybe you'd say it's from family, from upbringing and experience - I guess it's just who you are, isn't it?"
http://www.dailytelegraph.com.au/spo...-1226634240375
Having caught dad Chris, a retired leaguie, lacing his sneakers at the back door, the little fella immediately dropped all toys while dismissing requests to stay home with grandma.
And so, off they went.
Dad adopting something of a slow, Cliffy Young shuffle for what he thought would be to the end of the street. Or maybe down to that paddock he so often cut through.
The full list of the 21 best young guns
Convinced that while certainly no great athlete himself, his boy, a scrawny kid not even in primary school, would last only minutes before returning home to nan.
"But Boyd never did stop," he says. "We ran almost 5km."
Speaking now from his Forster home on the NSW north coast, plumber Chris Cordner is trying to explain the heartbeat of a son who just happens to be the best Gen Y player in the game.
After extensive analysis involving coaches, scouts and Fox Sports Statistics, Cordner has topped a hit-list of league's best players aged 21 or younger.
It's a result so comprehensive that, when presenting recruitment guru Peter Mulholland with all 61 eligible names, he didn't even need to read it.
"Put Boyd Cordner at No.1 for me," he says simply. "That kid is something out of the box."
But why? Well, speak to those who know him best and you'll hear how Boyd's success is built on an unshakeable determination, a tenacity, he has carried through his entire life.
And, sure, at first, the old man mistook this single-mindedness for sulking. Admitting he initially misread episodes like, when racing boys much older for flags at nippers, little Boyd was almost inconsolable with every placing of second or third.
"But he's just a kid with real desire," says Steve "Blocker" Roach, the Kangaroo legend who formed a favourable opinion of Cordner during Country camp.
"In a word, tough ... tough."
Call it a grit that comes in part from mum Lanai, a young woman whose determination to raise her two boys was the one thing cancer never took - not even during those final agonising days.
And dad Chris, the former lower grader with Illawarra, Canterbury and St George who, on suddenly becoming a single parent 16 years ago, would commute from the family home in Old Bar to Sydney because, well, that's where the money was.
There's Bev and Joe Cordner, the grandparents who raised Boyd when dad was away, and older brother Dane providing exactly the type of guidance you'd expected of a future coalminer.
"But hanging Boyd's success on any of us, it's wrong," father Chris says. "Some things, people are just born with them."
While he may be something like a tricoloured Chuck Norris on field, off it Cordner remains polite, grounded, more humble than a Wednesday night bible group.
"But the attention, it's not my sort of thing, you know?" he'll say almost apologetically at Roosters HQ.
"I mean, I really appreciate things people are saying. But I just don't feel like anything I've done yet is worth talking about."
But surely his efforts in that Country jersey, and again on Anzac Day, were more than average?
"Ah, playing good football is easy with good people around you," Cordner continues. "Like when my brother and I were Knights juniors, Dad had come back home by then and would drive four hours to get us to and from training. Three times a week he drove while we slept ... how do you repay that?"
Well, playing your first NRL trial at 16 is a fair start. A rare honour gifted shortly after the schoolboy signed by then Roosters coach Brad Fittler.
"Yeah, gave him about 10 minutes against Parramatta," Freddy recalls. "And even back then he was so competitive. So willing.
"Got on the field and went as hard as anyone." Of course, one broken jaw and five knee operations slowed him somewhat.
Yet for Cordner, an agonising run of injuries that would eventually stretch three years only intensified the doggedness now defining him - propelling this footballer to the top of our list ahead of boom Bulldog David Klemmer, whose $1 million Canterbury contract resembled a Coles red spot special after recent efforts in that under-20s State of Origin game.
"And in a few years," said one scout, "expect Dave to be doing even better in the real thing."
Klemmer occupies the No.2 spot Jamal Idris owned in our 2011 list of the best young guns. Josh Dugan nudged out the likes of Will Hopoate, Kieran Foran and Ben Barba for the No.1 spot that year.
Among the more controversial selections is that of Rabbitoh George Burgess at 12, with the jury still not convinced he will reach the same NRL heights as forwards above him like Cordner.
"Oh, Boyd has Origin written all over him," enthuses Roach. "You'd love to know where he gets that toughness from and bottle it."
So too, apparently, would the kid himself. "Ah, no I'm not sure where it comes from," the young Rooster grins shyly. "Maybe you'd say it's from family, from upbringing and experience - I guess it's just who you are, isn't it?"
http://www.dailytelegraph.com.au/spo...-1226634240375
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