Two years ago Coen Hess scored a hat-trick of tries in his first rugby league A grade appearance for Townsville Brothers at just 17 years of age.
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In June the Mount Isa rugby league junior ran out in the team colours of Queensland Cup side Mackay Cutters, where he went one better to bag a double on debut.
Last Saturday night in his North Queensland Cowboys first grade debut against the New Zealand Warriors, Hess went over for his first ever National Rugby League four-pointer.
Hess, who covered for injured back-rower Gavin Cooper, was a member of the 17-man squad that came back from a 16-point deficit to put 50 unanswered points on the Kiwi side.
It is safe to say that the teenager has made a genuine stamp on the NRL competition at last.
But the under-20 Kangaroos player modestly admitted that a tad of sheer luck was still to thank for his remarkable year of football.
“The debut was awesome,” Hess said.
“The try was just icing on the cake really. I got to play with some childhood heroes.”
Hess recorded 14 tackles, created a line break as well as two offloads, a try assist, and a try all in the space of 55 minutes.
“I was sitting on the bench at the time when it was 16-0 and I was thinking ‘oh this is going to be a great debut getting pumped in New Zealand.’”
But soon the true colours of the Cowboys leadership group showed and Hess was able to experience first-hand how the tide of the game completely turned.
“When I went on, you could really just tell the guys like JT (Johnathan Thurston) and Matt Scott are just natural born leaders.”
“They took it under their own belt trying to steer the team back in the right direction. They (Warriors) had the ball for the majority of the first half starving us of the ball.”
“But once I got on, we started to get a bit more control of the ball and started doing our own thing.”
Like Cowboys coach Paul Green, Coen’s father Warren said his son fitted in nicely into the senior squad.
“It was very exciting,” Mr Hess said.
“Someone told me he (Coen) didn’t look out of place. He took it in his stride and was strong in some runs in defence and attack.”
With Cooper likely to be recalled into the fold against the Melbourne Storm in round 25, Hess is happy to take the games as they come.
“It’d be nice to get a few more games under my belt.”
But even if Hess drops back into the under-20 side, there is still plenty to play for with the young Cowboys side leapfrogging to first place last weekend.
“I knew before the game that the Panthers had lost to St George so it’s nice to be out the front in the 20s as well.”