Brisbane Tigers: Cup gains and losses

Ryley Jacks’ return to the Brisbane Tigers may have been a false start in 2022, but the Easts junior is right where he belongs for 2023.

The former NRL playmaker signed with the Tigers last year before a dream opportunity came up to try his hand in the Super League in the United Kingdom.

With the blessing of Tigers CEO Brian Torpy, Jacks delayed his return to the Hostplus Cup and signed with the Featherstone Rovers - but he always knew he would be back.

“I finished up with (Melbourne) Storm in 2021 and I always wanted to come back to play at the Tigers,” he said.

“It was my junior club and I played Colts here and everything like that. I started here for a few months last year but it was also a dream of mine to go play rugby league in the UK and that opportunity popped up out of nowhere.

“Torps was really good and let me go over and do a year over there and I’m very grateful for that.

“The experience was unreal and it’s freshened me up a little bit. They play it so differently over there, plus you get to travel the world.

“I got told my whole career that you have got to go over, by all ex-NRL players - Ryan Hoffman, Ryan Hinchcliffe – they all said, ‘if you get the opportunity, go do it.’

“I didn’t know I needed it until I got over there and that’s why I’m so grateful, mainly that my wife agreed to it, but that we took the chance and went over and did it.

“I was coached by Brian McDermott, who has won a lot of Super League competitions and I was very lucky for that, for him to be my coach. It was very different to what I learnt at Storm.

“You think it’s the right way or the only way but he opened my mind up about different ways to go about things. It helped me think differently about the game and freshened me up.

“I feel like I could play a bit longer now because of that year over there. I always knew I’d come back and play for the Tigers again. I’ve got to this point and I’m very excited for the next few years.”

Jacks played his junior football at Eastern Suburbs and moved into the Colts system with the Tigers before he signed to the Sydney Roosters under 20s.

He then made his Cup debut with the Tigers in 2014 and has come in and out of the club over the years since as his NRL career progressed with Melbourne – a Tigers affiliate club – and the Gold Coast Titans.

It is this long history with the Tigers that ensured Jacks was always destined to return as a contracted Cup player.

“My first memories of football were coming here to Langlands Park,” Jacks said.

“I remember my dad coaching here and I remember coming here in the early 2000s with him and my brother. We’d mostly go to Cup games over NRL games.

“Dad really respected Cup and me and my brother Rhys (Ipswich Jets hooker) love playing Cup. It’s what we played in the backyard and what we always wanted to do.

“For me it’s about that connection, my first memories here and wanting to finish here where it all started.”

Since his return, Jacks has been elevated to the leadership group alongside new signings Leivaha Pulu and Corey Thompson, as well as senior forward Bennett Leslie.