{"id":939753,"date":"2026-10-24T23:06:14","date_gmt":"2026-10-24T23:06:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/939753\/"},"modified":"2026-10-24T23:06:14","modified_gmt":"2026-10-24T23:06:14","slug":"bradman-best-to-realise-childhood-dream-with-rugby-league-world-cup-debut","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/939753\/","title":{"rendered":"Bradman Best to realise childhood dream with Rugby League World Cup debut"},"content":{"rendered":"

A 2013 photo circulating on social media shows that NRL star Bradman Best and his year 6 teacher understood the power of dreams.<\/p>\n

The image, taken by Tanya Doorn at Woy Woy, shows Best holding a chalkboard that says “Play Rugby League for Australia”.<\/p>\n

Now the 25-year-old is one of four debutants in the line-up for the Kangaroos’ clash with Fiji in Brisbane on Sunday.<\/p>\n

\"A<\/p>\n

Tanya Doorn says she could see young Bradman’s potential. (Supplied: Tanya Doorn)<\/p>\n

“It means everything,” Best said.<\/p>\n

“Ever since a little kid, I’ve dreamt of this \u2026 it’s pretty special.”<\/p>\n

Ms Doorn, who is still at St John the Baptist school in Woy Woy, says Best’s success comes as no surprise.<\/p>\n

“You could tell Bradman was going to potentially become something great on the field,” she said.<\/p>\n

“He was never the loudest player or a loud show off. He was a very humble student.”<\/p>\n

\"A<\/p>\n

Bradman Best’s prowess on the sporting field was obvious to his teachers. (Getty Images: Mark Evans)<\/p>\n

A lifelong goal<\/p>\n

Best played junior rugby league for the Woy Woy Roosters before being signed by the Newcastle Knights and debuting in the NRL in 2019.<\/p>\n

\"A<\/p>\n

Bradman Best advises kids to chase their dreams, just like he did. (Supplied: Kangaroos)<\/p>\n

Although his primary school could not be more proud of his success, Best did not enjoy those years.<\/p>\n

“I hated school and sort of put all my eggs into one basket and that was rugby league,” he said.<\/p>\n

Best’s year 2 teacher, Clare Gallagher, said his athletic talent was apparent from early on.<\/p>\n

“He was going to be an Olympic runner \u2014 he always ran 100 metres exceptionally fast,” she said.<\/p>\n

\u00a0“And yes, he said he put his eggs into one basket, which was his sporting skills.”<\/p>\n

Inspiring others<\/p>\n

Best, a champion nipper at Umina Surf Club, hopes to inspire the students at his former school to chase their dreams.<\/p>\n

“For the young kids coming through, I always tell them, ‘Dream big,'” he said.<\/p>\n

“Aspire to be whatever you want to do, whatever you want to be \u2026 go out and chase it.”\"A<\/p>\n

Bradman Best has experienced representative success with the NSW Blues. (Getty Images: Bradley Kanaris)<\/p>\n

Ms Gallagher said the students were taking inspiration from Best’s success.<\/p>\n

“It makes them think that if someone from our school can do that, I can do that, because they all have big dreams,” she said.<\/p>\n

Best’s inspiration came from the home.<\/p>\n

“At that young age it was my dad. He was my hero, he played rugby league and I guess I just wanted to be like him,” he said.<\/p>\n

Roger Best played in the lower grades for Manly before he joined the London Broncos in England’s Super League in 1997.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A 2013 photo circulating on social media shows that NRL star Bradman Best and his year 6 teacher…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":939754,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[64,63,13388,365857,24981,3195,4495,158,159,506289,85,185102],"class_list":["post-939753","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-sports","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-australian-kangaroos","tag-bradman-best","tag-dream","tag-kangaroos","tag-newcastle-knights","tag-nrl","tag-rugby-league","tag-school-photo","tag-sports","tag-woy-woy"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/939753","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=939753"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/939753\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/939754"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=939753"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=939753"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=939753"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}