Written by Oliver Kellner-Dunk
Luke Brooks made his NRL debut as an 18-year-old during round 24 of the 2013 season for the Wests Tigers against the St George-Illawarra Dragons at the Sydney Cricket ground. The debutant was awarded man of the match in the 34-16 victory.
He then went on to win the Dally M Rookie of the Year in 2014 and is also the youngest player to ever feature in an NRL All-Stars game after having earned selection in 2015.
Since then, even though Brooks is at a club that hasn’t made the finals since 2011 and most recently finished ninth in 2019, the Leichhardt Wanderers junior has still shown consistent improvement.
He has been a stand out player for them, having only missed out on being in the Origin selection mix due to his team’s form rather than his own.
In 2018 the 25-year-old won the Dally M Halfback of the Year award finishing just two points behind outright winner Roger Tuivasa-Sheck. He sustained his form in 2019 scoring four tires, getting 16 try assists, 10 line break assists and averaging 305.8 kick metres per game.
If he continues to perform into 2020 and the Wests Tigers are going well, there is every chance we will see Luke Brooks being considered for a New South Wales jersey come the start of June.
Absolutely! He has been harshly marked and criticised since his first grade debut, where he was ridiculously labeled as the ‘next Andrew Johns’…no pressure there!
He’s always had a great passing game and long kicking game but his short kicking game and defence has improved tenfold in the last few years.
He knows when to make the big play and when to play it safe too.
It’s always mystified me why his name isn’t mentioned more for SOO??
He’s also got the ready made combination with Tedesco from all their years playing together…from juniors through to NRL. 👍
Errr fucked that up, got Tedesco and Moses mixed up when referring to the juniors lol.
Still, they have the combination from their time together in a struggling Wests Tigers team. Imagine that combo coming together again at SOO level with forwards moving forward!!