Xavier Coates

Coates was born in Port Moresby, Papua New Guinea.[2] As an infant he moved with his family to Australia and initially spent two years living in Cairns before settling on the Gold Coast.[3] He attended Marymount College throughout his upbringing and began pursuing an athletics career in primary school.[4] His goal was to represent Papua New Guinea at the Olympics[5] but former NRL player and Marymount teacher Matt Geyer organised a phone call with then-Queensland captain Greg Inglis[6] and the pair convinced Coates to pursue a career in rugby league instead.[7] Coates named Inglis as his sporting idol growing up[8] and was nicknamed 'Little GI' by his Broncos teammates due the similarities in playing style.[9]

Xavier Coates began playing junior football on the Gold Coast for the Currumbin Eagles[10] in 2010 at the age of 9 years old. Coates never made an underage representative team as a junior, being over looked on multiple occasions. After a brief pursuit of an athletics career, he returned to the field and played part in the Currumbin Eagles' undefeated Premiership winning U16 team in 2017.[11] This was to be pivotal as on a cold May evening with the Currumbin Eagles playing the Helensvale Hornets a Brisbane Broncos' talent scout had come to view the game as several young Broncos contracted players were playing including Tom Dearden.[12]

The scout only had eyes for one player after the game, Xavier. After being signed to the Bronco's Xavier was invited to the Broncos' summer camp where he impressed coaches and trainers and was selected in the 2018 Qld emerging U18 Origin Squad[13] despite being 16 years old and never having played a representative game. Xavier was selected in the 2018 U18 Qld State of Origin[14] side who went down to NSW 16-10.[15] In 2019 Xavier was fast tracked[16] to senior rugby league with him dominating for his Community Football senior club the Currumbin Eagles.

In 2018, he was instrumental in the Currumbin Eagles' U17 Premiership where he was coached by ex Melbourne Storm player Matt Geyer.[17] He also excelled in the Qld Major Competition U18 Mal Meninga Cup with the Tweed Heads Seagulls[18] and Intrust Super Cup with the Redcliffe Dolphins.[19] Xavier did make brief appearances for the Tweed Heads Seagulls ISC team, however not being a contracted Titans player saw him transfer to Broncos' feeder club the Redcliffe Dolphins. Xavier was finally selected for his first ever junior representative team in the 2018 U18 South Coast team and the U18 Qld School Boys[20] and once again was selected in the Qld emerging U18 Origin Squad and played in the U18 QLD State of Origin against NSW,[21] where QLD won the game 34 - 12 and with Coates named Man of the Match.[22]

Coates made his international debut for Papua New Guinea in their 24–6 defeat by Samoa in the 2019 Oceania Cup.[23] A month later, in round 16 of the 2019 NRL season he made his NRL debut for the Brisbane Broncos against the Cronulla-Sutherland Sharks, scoring a try.[24]

He made twelve appearances for Brisbane in the 2020 NRL season, a year which saw Brisbane come last for the first time their history.[25] Coates broke the record for fastest player in the NRL by hitting a top speed of 36.9 km/h against the Newcastle Knights in round 6 of the 2020 season.[26]

Coates was selected to make his debut for Queensland on the wing in Game I of the 2020 State of Origin series, scoring a try in the 18-14 win. Coates then played game 2 scoring the first try in a 34-10 loss, however was ruled out of game 3 in the captain's run due to a groin injury.

• Brisbane Broncos profile