Not many people can claim that they won two premierships on the same day.
Luke Sharpe is the exception; winning an under-19s premiership in the Central Coast competition at fullback in 2013, and backing up for first grade afterwards in the same position.
Fast-forward to the present day, and he is still tearing it up in the Central Coast with the No. 1 on his back, this time for the Wyong Roos in the Intrust Super Premiership NSW.
“It was my first year in local first grade,” Sharpe says to NSWRL.com.au, reminiscing on the day he won two trophies.
“I was 18 playing in the under-19s, and the fullback for first grade back then got injured.
“The captain-coach gave me a call and asked if I would like to play in the two games, and I said of course.
“It was lucky to get the win, I’m proud of that.”
Sharpe was born in Penrith, but considers the Central Coast home.
He’s only 21-years-old, loves the area, and therefore, owns a raw sense of passion when he pulls on the green and gold Wyong Roos jersey.
“I was born in Penrith and played for the Doonside Roos in Sydney,” Sharpe says.
“I came up here when I was nine years old, and played a couple of years for Toukley.
“Then I moved to Wyong when I was 12, so I’ve been here about nine years now.
Sharpe was the best player for Wyong in yesterday’s encounter against the Newcastle Knights, scoring two early tries and setting up another in the second half.
He starred in a team full of Sydney Roosters superstars, including Paul Carter, Jayden Nikorima, Joseph Manu and Dale Copley.
If early performances are a sign of the year that he and the Roos are to have, things are looking incredibly bright.
However, while he is delighted to be out of pre-season and to have two wins on the board already, Sharpe is not getting ahead of himself.
“It’s been pretty hard and long pre season, we put in a lot of kilometres and it was very tough, but this is the good bit of the year,” Sharpe says.
“It was a good hit-out, and good to give the respect back to Newcastle after last week as we didn’t come down here thinking they were going to be poor, we stuck in and dug deep, it was a good fight and a good win.
“We’re looking just to work on the little things that we didn’t get right, we’ll go back and analyse it, then keep our go-forward and keep our momentum from the last two games, and we’ll work hard as a group together.”
It’s obvious Sharpe loves Rugby League by the way he carries himself on the field, and talks about the game and his team off it, but when asked about his love for the Central Coast, there was no hesitation in his answer.
“Mate, it’s the best place to be.”
