Comeback kid Jack Bird finds confidence again after horror injuries

Jack Bird is hopeful he’s finally put four years of horror injuries and setbacks behind him, and is now fully focused on proving his loyalty to his boyhood club St George Illawarra ahead of a planned 2022 re-signing.

Bird, 26, enjoyed an explosive rise in NRL following his debut in 2015, crowned with a premiership with Cronulla in just his second year in the top-flight footy comp.

Following that lofty victory, however, the luckless Berkeley junior managed to gt out onto the park and play rugby league just 34 times in four years. He joined the Broncos in 2018 and played 17 games over the next two seasons. 2020 got even worse, with Bird missing the entire campaign. The injuries just kept mounting up — two ACLs, a shoulder, a sternum.

At his peak, Bird played international rugby league, and also turned out for the Blues five times across two Origin series. Injuries rocked his repetitive bids to return to the game though, and he began to lose hope he’d string two appearances together again.

“You know what injuries do to you, they make you lose confidence in your body, and in the game you usually play. [The injuries] took a lot of confidence away from my game and from me as a person,” Bird told Channel Nine.

“It was kind of hard to get back. I feel like I’m getting there, it’s been a pretty tough road.”

In 2021, the Dragons offered him a lifeline; an opportunity to get back on track. He snapped it up, partly for the Wollongong homecoming, and partly understanding it was a second chance.

Bird exploded again last year, playing 22 games across four positions.

The club finished a meager eleventh, winning eight and sixteen. A brutal slide out of the top eight following eight straight losses to finish the year — sparked by that notorious BBQ party — made it a disappointing year for Red V fans and players alike, but Bird admits he had a bigger priority than wins and losses. He just wanted to play.

“Last year I was just trying to get a full season under my belt, I didn’t really care how I played.

“People count you out,” he explained. “Coming back, I’m not trying to prove them wrong, but you know your self-worth. I think I’m bigger than they think I am. I know what I can do on the footy field.”

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Now Bird’s eyes turn to another goal after four years battling his own body, the rugby league doubters, and internal fears his NRL career may have been waning years early — a new Dragons deal.

The Sporting Base previously reported the club and Wollongong junior were deep in contracts talks. Those November talks, and the biggest sticking points, remaing the same. Bird has been earning $950k a year since joining the Broncos in 2018, and wants to stick close to that same pay packet heading into his late 20s.

The Dragons, on the other hand, have already spent big on power-centre Moses Suli, who commands a pretty penny. He’s locked into a three-year deal, meaning St George powerbrokers don’t want to tie up too much cap space in similar players.

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One factor playing into Bird’s hands, however, is Anthony Griffin’s plot to shift him into the forwards. Bird already spent time in the second row across the 2021 season, and is training and bulking up for a more permanent shift there in the final year of his current Dragons deal. The club wants to pay him around $1.2 million over two years for that positional swap in 2023-2024.

“I want to try [and] get my contract sorted by Round 1,” Bird revealed to media.

That timeline may not eventuate, however, the star admits, but he remains adamant there’s only one thing he wants: the Dragons stay. His boyhood club’s loyalty after his injuries have played a big role in his refound form and confidence, and he wants to repay the favour by giving them right of first refusal for his services.

“I don’t think it’s going to happen, it’s just around the corner. I want to stay there, I’ve let them know I want to be there. We’ve just got to come up with a deal. I haven’t spoken to any other club.”

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