Papua New Guinea winger Robert Derby has revealed the hard journey he undertook from becoming a Storm reject to earning a contract with the Cowboys.
Signed straight out of high school, Derby joined the Melbourne Storm at the young age of 17. Following in the footsteps of Billy Slater and Ben Hampton, he became the latest Far North product at the time.
With the Melbourne Storm suggesting Derby move north to play for the Sunshine Coast Falcons, he could never have predicted what happened next. In a downward spiral, the winger was told it wasn't going to work and was let go by the Storm and the Falcons.
Revealing he was in tears when he heard the news, Derby described to Code Sportsย his reaction looking back on it.
"I was young and stuffed around a little bit, I was in the wrong mindset," he said.
"But it was a really good lesson because as soon as I got dropped it just clicked in my head that I had lost that opportunity."
"I could have easily been there, but I was being a bit selfish and just not really wanting to have a go at it at training and everything. I broke away from that and the Storm saw that, so they just dropped me from that."
"I was in tears the day I got called and they said, โthis isn't the pathway for you, but hopefully you can move on to another club.'"
Despite the rejection at a young age, Derby continued playing rugby league while many others would have given up on their dream.
Playing for Northern Pride in the Queensland Cup, he rose through the ranks and became one of the best wingers in the competition. He would go on to training with the Cowboys Young Guns whilst also playing in the Queensland Cup.
"I was playing for the Pride and training here at the Young Guns so I was going back and forth to the Pride each weekend to play," he continued.
"Initially I was just supposed to play 21s and maybe one or two Cup games, but I played my first 21s game and I played pretty good so I got the call-up to play in the Cup team the next week."
His attitude at both teams- Northern Pride and Cowboys Young Guns- earnt him the respect of Dane Campbell, the Cowboys recruitment manager. It was a full-circle moment for Derby, who admitted that Campbell was the one who let him go at the Falcons.
"It was actually Dane that let me go, and then I think he saw that I had finally kicked in and then brought me back last year."
"I got asked to train with the first-grade team (Cowboys) once a week, then that picked up to training full time this year with first grade."
Since being accepted into the Cowboys Young Guns program, he has gone on to represent Papua New Guinea and the Cowboys in the pre-season against the Dolphins, where he scored two tries.
Still only 21 years old, Derby knows the only goal now is to make his first-grade debut. When he appears for the first time in the NRL, it will complete one of the greatest stories of a kid who was dropped only to find himself another NRL contract through dedication and hard work.
