Secret behind Storm star’s incredible feats

Xavier Coates does things other NRL players just can’t do and it was realising how differently his body worked that helped the powerful Melbourne Storm winger return from a series of hamstring issues “100 per cent” confident he can go all out in Saturday’s semi-final against Cronulla.

The curse of having the “fast twitch fibres” that propel Coates to blistering speeds and incredible feats of athleticism, including his stunning try after going aerial against the Warriors in round 2, is the propensity for them to break under pressure.

Coates, 23, has become too familiar with hamstring injuries throughout his 83 NRL games and this year’s strain was bad enough to sideline him for 10 weeks, returning only in the round 27 win over the Broncos.

But the extra time taken to repair himself, having learnt lessons about his body with every injury, enabled Coates to go “100 miles per hour” in his 50-minute return to play.

He played with extreme confidence in his body, which bodes well for minor premiers Storm as they push for a home preliminary final and potentially bad news for the opposition wingers given the task of stopping Coates.

“It was more just being smart with it and just understanding that my body’s a bit different to other people’s,” Coates said this week.

“It’s fast twitch fibres, and I need a bit more recovery time than sort of the average person. I’m not a middle forward who doesn’t really open up too much. I’m an outside back, I need my speed.

“I need that recovery time and now, understanding my body a bit better, I think just little talks around that, just to speak up when it’s not feeling right. I’ve had those conversations now so everything’s all smooth.

“I have 100 per cent confidence in my body now. I could have probably returned two or three weeks earlier, but just making sure that my body was 100 per cent and my mindset was 100 per cent when I go out there. You don’t want to be 80, 90 per cent … that’s probably when the injuries re-occur.

“I got 50 minutes out at the Broncos game, and I felt like I was going 100 miles an hour as well, so I left no stone unturned, and I’m just happy to be back.”

Conceding the constant hamstring issues were giving him “grief”, Coates said he looked for inspiration from some of the game’s best players to build his resilience.

“You look at people like Tom Trbojevic and Nathan Cleary, who have repetitive sort of injuries that keep reoccurring. And I sort of took a little bit from them on how resilient they are,” he said.

“The way they’ve come back, it’s really inspiring for myself, so just making sure I can do everything in my power to get back out on the field and do all the one percenters, leave no stone unturned. I think that was something I really wanted to do.”

Despite the frustration of missing so much football, Coates can see the silver lining in being the best he can possibly be at the right time of the year, with a premiership potentially in his immediate future.

“I think it definitely is. We had those conversations with the coaching staff, and I think it was good for me to have a bit of a refresh,” he said.

“It was a pretty long pre-season, and when we got into the Origin period, that’s sort of the bye week that the boys had to have a bit of a break. I went into the Origin period, trained, played and then backed up.

“And like I said, it’s just understanding my body … I do a lot of high-speed running and a lot of k’s covered in my legs.

“It was annoying, but I’m just so grateful be back out there and leaving no stone unturned. Hopefully, I’ll stay out on the field for the rest of the season.”