“The best thing that’s happened to me” – Super League and NRL champion Lachlan Coote on joining St Helens

Lachlan Coote announced earlier in the year that he would be calling time on his career at the end of the season but sadly for the Hull KR full-back that was cut short with an immediate retirement coming following another concussion at Magic Weekend against Salford Red Devils.

The 33-year old is one of just a handful of men to win Grand Finals in both Super League and the NRL with victories for North Queensland Cowboys and of course St Helens.

He’s recently taken to the Out Of Your League podcast hosted by Mark Flanagan to tell his story and he’s revealed what a huge impact moving to St Helens had on him.

“I’ve said it before but going to Saints is probably the best thing that’s happened to me as an individual, but then also the culture that I went into created that.

“So, obviously, like Johnny Lomax made me a better professional with what he does before his body.

“I swear we had competitions and trying to see who was first in the training. I’ll be running in, racing in, trying to race him in there. But yeah, Johnny Lomax and then also being with Theo Fages as well.

“Me and him really clicked. I think he was a great reason why we went so well. We had that stability within our team of just not doing the flashy plays but making sure that everyone knew their role and getting to the point of the field. Yeah, I think it was detail me, you know, everybody knew their role.”

During his three year stint at St Helens Coote lifted three Grand Finals before taking on a new challenge with Hull KR.

He also told both Flanagan and guest presenter Kyle Amor about how Saints saved his career, as he had come incredibly close to dropping down to the Queensland Cup – the NRL’s feeder competition.

“You never know what happens in rugby league. You never know who’s talking or under the table or anything like that,” he recalled of his final year with the Cowboys.

“Next minute it caught wind that Ben Barba was wanting to come back to the NRL and just so happened to be he was going to Cowboys.

“I didn’t know at the time because it was a late decision, it was late in the year, I think it was around August or something like that.

“There was talks and there was no NRL sort of opportunities coming up at the time and I thought that was it for me, I was either going to go back to the Q Cup or do something like that.

“I was second guessing my own ability as well. I was that down on confidence that I thought I was 28 at the time and I thought that was it. I thought, ‘okay, well maybe my career’s done and I’ve played my best footy and they’re behind me’.”

Thankfully for Coote and for Super League the move that saw Coote ousted from his job created a vacancy at Saints, which Coote took with both hands and as a result he wrote himself into Red Vee and Super League history.