HE was a signing coup all on his own, but new Dapto coach Blake Wallace has quickly sweetened the deal for the Canaries in bringing former Dragons livewire Adam Quinlan to the Showground for the upcoming Illawarra League season.
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Both Illawarra-South Coast juniors, the pair first played together as primary school kids, but bonded more closely as teammates on the Illawarra Cutters team that claimed the double crown under current Rabbitohs coach Jason Demetriou in 2016.
It was Quinlan's fourth and final season on the Dragons books before shifting for a second stint in the Super League where he proved a revelation for Hull KR. Wallace also headed to the northern hemisphere, spending four seasons with the Toronto Wolfpack before a brief shift to Leigh Centurions.
With both returning from the UK at the same time, Wallace knew the first name on his recruitment list when he got the nod as coach from his junior club.
"Me and Quinny go back to under 12s in the South Coast Schoolboys team. We played together there and he was playing for Culburra and I was playing for Dapto and I reckon nine times out of 10 he got the wood on me," Wallace said.
"It panned out the way it panned out with us playing for the Cutters and he's someone I've always kept in touch with playing against him overseas. When I found out he was coming home he was the first person I called.
"I'm excited to work with him, I know how good of a footy player he is and he's an even better bloke. Having someone like that around the club is going to benefit the team and the young kids. He's just a legend and I'm excited to work with him again."
It's a quick transition to the coaching ranks for Wallace, who was forced to call time on his rugby league career at just 29 following the last in a series of head knocks in April last year.
With concussion symptoms lingering for the best part of nine months, he simply couldn't ignore medical advice.
"I had the head knock and straight away I knew it wasn't a good one," he said.
"Knocks in the past I was always good the next day after a good night's sleep, but the symptoms just kept on happening. We tried to start the return to play process but it was just an ongoing thing.
"I went and saw a specialist and did some cognitive testing. I did about three of them over the course of a few months and there just wasn't enough improvement in those for him to comfortably say 'you can go back on the field'.
"When I asked 'what happens if I get another head knock?' and he said he just didn't know and I couldn't get the answers I was looking for.
"In the end he said 'I just don't think you can play again with how many you've had' and was just on me to process it."
Having slogged so hard through the semi-pro ranks to carve out a professional career, it was a bitter pill to swallow, but he's not the type to kicks stones.
"I still have days where I wish I was playing like anybody, but it's something that was taken out of my hands and I'm probably lucky that it was," he said.
"I probably would have just kept going until the wheels fell off, who knows.
"It would've been a lot harder to come to a decision had it been on me. Because it was the medical professionals decision, I wouldn't say it was easy, but it was just a reality.
"It is what it is and I'm just grateful to have been able to experience what I did and I'm excited to use that experience and go on a different path now."
Ironically, that path has led him right back to where it all started in Canaries gear, a great Illawarra league story at a time that's offered precious few through the COVID pandemic.
A third generation premiership-winner with Dapto in 2016 - following father Steve and grandfather Noel Fewings - Wallace is relishing the chance to rebuild the Canaries into a premiership force.
"It was always something wanted to do at Dapto, whether it was in a player-coach role or coaching," he said.
"Unfortunately I can't do the player-coach thing but it is an exciting new chapter that keeps me around the game. If I didn't have something like this back at Dapto I probably wouldn't be involved in footy.
"I love the club and I love the town that much I couldn't see myself going anywhere else so, when they approached me with the opportunity, I jumped at it.
"I was at training the other night and the feet are itchy already but it's one of those things where I've got to channel it. It'll be different but it's a really exciting thing for me personally."
The recruitment effort won't stop with Quinlan either.
"I'm looking for a bit of experience and I've got some guys in mind that I'm keeping tabs on at the moment, but nothing set in stone," Wallace said.
"We're training now so I can start seeing the pieces we need. At the end of the day I want guys coming to the club for the right reasons. I only want to coach guys who want to be here."
The Canaries committee is still on the lookout for players to join their male and female ranks, particularly women interested in playing Open Women's Tackle, Open Women's League Tag and Under 18s Tackle.
The club will hold a meet and greet at Reed Park on February 8, with all new and current players invited to attend.
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Mitch Jennings
Sports writer. Sport is my passion, rugby league my first love.
Sports writer. Sport is my passion, rugby league my first love.
