IN five years Corey Lewis has gone from never playing competitive rugby league to recovering from a serious neck injury to take his place in the North Coast Bulldogs under-18 representative side.
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The Newman Technical College student will line up at right centre when the Bulldogs start their 2021 Laurie Daley Cup campaign at Aberdeen on Saturday.
His first game of rugby league came when he was 13 years old before a few seasons later he suffered a serious injury.
"I had a semi-final where I got crushed in a tackle and did muscle and nerve damage to my neck," he said.
Numerous physiotherapy appointments and referrals followed before he had to overcome the mental battle of knowing his neck had recovered.
"It was after a lot of referrals that said 'you are right to play," Lewis said.
The teenager missed the following two representative rugby league trials before he made the final cut to coach Dan Kemp's side this season.
"There was a trial this year and instead of getting selected from the group there was a few people, then it got cut to 35 and then 25 and now round one we've got an 18-man squad."
The process has been more in-depth after Groups 2 and 3 joined forces with the National Rugby League club where they can select players for their junior representative squads.
"This level of rep footy is a lot more intense than club footy because everyone's at the same skill level," Lewis said.
"You do extra sessions with the coaches before training and there are a lot of boys coming from different areas to train.
"This program has been a lot different to the past."
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