‘Don’t get to choose your path’: Liddle’s arduous journey to 100

Already through the opening rounds of this season Jacob Liddle has watched as four players who made their NRL debut more than three years after him celebrated hitting 100 games before he did.

It’s been another reminder, not that he needed it, of the slow and at times frustrating journey he’s been on since Round 18 of season 2016, when the Gosford-born hooker made his top-flight debut as a teenager. 

Since then he's had to overcome plenty just to keep the dream alive.

A devastating knee injury in 2019 – in which he tore his ACL, MCL and PCL all at once – was the major setback and stalled his career for a full calendar year, but there were plenty of others too, including suffering two dislocated shoulders in the same season. 

Having four different head coaches in his first six years at the Wests Tigers also didn't help, and early on Liddle found himself backing up a motley crew of starting dummy-halves who ranged from Samoan journeyman Pita Godinet to club legend Robbie Farah.

Prior to last year when he achieved a career-high 22 games, he had managed to get on the field for more than 13 NRL games in a season just once and, despite an impressive junior career which included playing for the Australian Schoolboys and NSW under-20s, he struggled to establish himself in the top grade. 

Now it's the memories of those tough times that are also ensuring the 27-year-old pauses to soak in all of the good moments coming his way, including finally reaching a century of games this Sunday. 

“It's been eight years pretty much now. I guess some people get there a bit quicker, some people take a bit longer, but it's an honour to play a hundred and I’m so excited," Liddle told NRL.com. 

It's not been the smoothest time. There's been a few ups and downs, a bit of a rollercoaster, with injuries and different coaches coming in.

Jacob Liddle

"It's taken a bit longer than what I would have hoped.

“But you don't get to choose your path and how you get here.”

Liddle, who is now in his second season with the Dragons, admits there were times after that catastrophic 2019 knee injury that playing in the NRL again seemed uncertain, let alone getting to 100 games.   

“That was a tough year and I had a few dark times there,” Liddle said.

“I wondered if I was going to make it back… it was something I hadn’t faced before then because I didn’t have many injuries coming through the ranks.

“Thankfully I had the support around me of my now wife, Caitlin, and my family, and I got through it.

“My wife has been there since day dot – from when I debuted all the way through – and she was the one taking care of me during that time and was the one I could talk to and lean on.

“She was there to pick me back up and keep me on track.”

In a fitting twist it will be his former Wests Tigers club that Liddle runs out against as he brings up the milestone on Sunday, with the venue, Campbelltown Sports Stadium, also where he played his first U-20s game a decade ago.

After a strong 2023 campaign for the Dragons, Liddle has now established himself as new coach Shane Flanagan’s first-choice No.9 and is loving life at the Red V.

“Last year was my favourite year, I played well and got to 22 games in the end, which I was proud of," he said. 

“I’m just trying to do the same thing this year and put a good season together.

“I’ve got a big crew coming down on Sunday to Campbelltown; mum, dad, brothers, cousins, friends, everyone is going to be there, which is exciting.”