On the eve of the NRL season Damien Cook typed some personal goals into his phone.
One was to play every game as starting hooker, something the South Sydney star hadn't managed in his previous five years of first-grade footy at three different clubs.
Another was to get picked for State of Origin.
Runaway leader: Damien Cook is closer than ever to an Origin selection.
Photo: Craig Golding
Eleven weeks later Cook is well on his way to achieving both.
"At the start of the year I always set goals for myself," Cook said.
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"Some might be a bit far stretched but I always put goals in there and I try and reach them throughout the year."
In a breakout season under new coach Anthony Seibold, the 26-year-old Cook has all but stamped his name on back of the NSW No.9 jersey following another standout display in Saturday's slim win over North Queensland.
Setting up the Rabbitohs' first try and weaving through to score the second, he shifted the odds ever more in his favour in his battle with Dragons rake Cameron McInnes for NSW coach Brad Fittler's attention.
"It would mean a lot, it would be a dream," Cook said.
"It's a dream to play any NRL game. I obviously want to keep playing at the highest level … it's nice to be mentioned in that arena, it's getting closer.
"I'm dealing with that outside pressure really well. I'm just trying to concentrate on good footy here at Souths and we have another big game this week against the Warriors.
"I haven't spoken to Freddy (Fittler) or anyone in Origin. I think they're probably just letting everyone's footy do the talking so hopefully another good game this weekend."
That Cook still sees any NRL start as a dream says a lot about his journey.
Over five years with St George Illawarra, Canterbury and now fourth-placed Souths, he'd never started five matches in a row at dummy-half.
There's no secret to the 2018 change, he says, but he gives much credit to the support of Seibold and the club's leadership group, along with the team's in- form forwards who "do the job for me and allow me to play my style of footy".
The result is Cook has surged ahead of McInnes, the man he used to play back-up to at Souths.
Breakout season: Former Rabbitoh Cameron McInnes is Cook's biggest challenger for the No.9 jersey.
Photo: AAP
As it stands Cook has the equal-most tackles league-wide with 424, compared with McInnes' 345, while he's racked up a league-high 1036 running metres to McInnes' 648 – the fourth highest for hookers.
Cook leads the hooker count for linebreaks with eight while McInnes has three, and Cook has four try assists to McInnes' three.
"It's something I've really worked on, just making sure I'm focused on my next job," he said.
"That's just playing consistent footy. It's something I've really wanted to work on this year as a hooker, being good week in week out.
"That's what the good players do and that's my focus this weekend."
AAP
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