Col Fogarty enjoys whirlwind first season of rugby with Tamworth

All he'd really known was league.

But the 19-year old enjoyed a whirlwind rise.

From rugby novice, he was by the end of season starting at hooker for first grade.

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No one was more surprised at Fogarty's ascension than the man himself.

After finally relenting to best friend Liam Allan's pestering - the Magpies' number 10 had been into him for the last year telling him to come and have a run, he'd love it - the trainee water process operator at the Calala water treatment plant was originally intending to play in the new under-21s competition.

When that didn't get off the ground, he expected to play third grade and maybe a bit of second grade.

But on the back of a string of strong performances, he got the call-up to make his first grade debut against St Alberts.

"Just after the Glen Innes game (Round 9) Burkey (first grade coach Peter Burke) pulled me aside and said he was really happy with the way that I was playing and asked me if I wanted to have a run with first grade," he said.

Fogarty admitted it was a big shock: he didn't think he was "ready for it".

But he held onto his spot for their next two games.

It made the abrupt ending to the season doubly disappointing, but has whet his appetite for next season.

He has "already been doing a bit of training here and there".

"Now that I know a lot more of the skills I can actually practice on my own," he added.

Thrown into the hooking role, the season was "a big learning curve".

"I wanted to play prop originally but they just thought I'd be better suited to hooker being a bit shorter," Fogarty explained.

One of the biggest lessons was the art of scrummaging.

While he had played front row in league, it was completely different to anything he'd experienced before.

"Throwing too, I've just started learning to throw," he continued.

"They didn't want to put too much on me while I was still learning."

Fogarty spoke about how supportive the coaches and his team-mates were, and how much they helped him.

"I had a lot of one-on-one training with a lot of the boys and coaches as well," he said.

Reflecting on the season, Burke said Fogarty's progression was one of the highlights of the season for him.

Allan also.

It seems the latter might have been right too..

"I loved it," Fogarty said of his season of rugby.

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