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Ten minutes later and with the game on the line, Reardon was injected into the contest against one of the competition\u2019s toughest forward packs in the Melbourne Storm.<\/p>\n
Helping the Bulldogs close out the victory, he had four runs for 28 metres, eight tackles and was involved in the lead-up to the final try of the match, putting the icing on the victory.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s nervous as but we\u2019ve got such a good bunch of boys that they all gave me confidence to believe in me on what I can do and they all got around me,\u201d Reardon told foxsports.com.au after making his NRL debut.<\/p>\n
\u201cI didn\u2019t really know until probably 25 minutes to go in the game. I was just on the bench and a few things sort of went the right way and I got the opportunity.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019ve been playing footy since I was four years old, so it\u2019s been a dream ever since then.<\/p>\n
\u201cMy old man played for the Bulldogs so it just makes it a little more special to debut for such a great club and to follow in his footsteps.\u201d<\/p>\n
Jed Reardon and his father Steve Reardon. (Photo: NRL Imagery)Source: FOX SPORTS<\/p>\n
The latest player from Temora to play in the NRL – following in the footsteps of Angus Crichton, Liam Martin and Zac Lomax – Reardon\u2019s entire family were in attendance despite the short notice.<\/p>\n
This included his grandparents, mother Lisa, his two older siblings, Billy and Matilda, younger brother Darcy (who is involved in the Canberra Raiders pathways), father Steve and his partner and her family.<\/p>\n
\u201cMy family drove up about five hours from Temora, so they were all here,\u201d Reardon added.<\/p>\n
\u201cThey all came down, which makes it ever more special. Coming from a small town (Mum and Dad) always used to drive me to and from training when I was at Canberra.<\/p>\n
\u201cThey\u2019d drive three hours to Canberra, three hours back from Canberra, three days a week just so I could train.<\/p>\n
\u201cI can\u2019t thank them enough. I\u2019m super grateful for the family that I have and I\u2019m so grateful that they were able to come down this weekend and watch it all.\u201d<\/p>\n
Jed Reardon on debut against the Melbourne Storm. (Photo: NRL Imagery)Source: FOX SPORTS<\/p>\n
Starting his junior career at the Canberra Raiders, Reardon made the switch to the Bulldogs in 2023 and has a close relationship with the club with his father played in over 160 matches for them between 1991 and 2003.<\/p>\n
\u201cI was pretty young back then but it\u2019s something I always wanted to do with my old man playing (for the Bulldogs),\u201d the young Reardon said on the change of teams.<\/p>\n
\u201cI wanted to follow in his footsteps and try and leave a bit of legacy as well at the club and obviously got that opportunity and took it with both hands.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m super grateful that they\u2019ve got belief in me.\u201d<\/p>\n
Daley rules out Moses after hammy tweak | 12:43<\/p>\n
Playing his first NRL match on Thursday night, Reardon\u2019s focus in now on continuing to play consistent football week in, week out and hopefully gain more reps in the NRL arena.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m still only pretty young, so that\u2019s the ultimate goal to just play as much footy and stay consistent,\u201d he continued.<\/p>\n
\u201cBut I want to be playing first grade and that\u2019s what I\u2019m going to strive towards in the future so fingers crossed.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"When Jed Reardon was named on the six-man interchange bench for Thursday night\u2019s match against the Melbourne Storm,…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":446082,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[111,139,69,213],"class_list":["post-446081","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-sports","tag-new-zealand","tag-newzealand","tag-nz","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/446081","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=446081"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/446081\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/446082"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=446081"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=446081"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=446081"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}