NRL: Three letters for Four Nations

The Warriors didn't want him. Now, every team in the NRL is chasing Shaun Kenny-Dowall's shadow and his signature. Photo / Richard Robinson

He's the second-hardest man to tackle in the NRL. Last week he blitzed Manly with a hat-trick to - almost single-handedly - put the Roosters' premiership campaign back on track. After playing every minute of every match this season, he's shaping as a must-pick for the Kiwis' Four Nations campaign.

Not bad for a bloke who was told he wasn't in the top 100 players in his position in the country.

Shaun Kenny-Dowall's rejection by the Warriors as a 16-year-old is a tale that grows in significance every time he leaves another would-be defender grasping at his shadow.

He can't remember the name of the coach who provided that withering assessment of his ability, which - to spare someone a good dollop of embarrassment - is probably a good thing.

With his hopes of becoming a professional league player in tatters, the North Waikato-raised centre could have been forgiven for chucking in the towel. He didn't, deciding to chase the dream with his father, John.

"I went home and said, 'I've got no hope here, so I'm going elsewhere'," Kenny-Dowall recalls.

Elsewhere was Sydney. At 16 he quit school, got a job, saved some money and jumped the ditch with his father, a former Paralympian gold medallist and league coach.

"I backed my own judgment and obviously never looked back."

Not looking back isn't the same as not remembering. The Warriors' rejection drove him to club football with the Clovelly Crocodiles, into the Roosters' junior ranks and on to a first-grade debut a couple of months after his 19th birthday. It motivates him today.

"Rugby league was what I wanted to do. With the Warriors being the only professional outfit in New Zealand, being cut from the development squad was definitely a big motivation for me. It still drives me."

Last week's effort against Manly was hardly the first eye-catching performance from Kenny-Dowall this season.

Against the Warriors in Christchurch in round 16 he set up a try with a sizzling line break and then scored as the Roosters looked to have sealed the match - only to have his good work undone by Kevin Locke's spectacular late finish. Four weeks later he bagged four tries as the Roosters downed Brisbane 34-30.

His 18 tries rank him fourth equal in the competition. Only Raiders fullback Josh Dugan has broken more tackles than the 1.9m, 101kg Kenny-Dowall's 144. Add in 17 linebreaks and 33 offloads, and the Warriors reject has a pretty decent claim to be ranked as the premier centre in the competition.

"I'm really happy with my form this year," he said. "I'm comfortable in the system and with the blokes playing around me."

Comfort isn't something the Roosters enjoyed much of last season. The club lurched from scandal to scandal on the way to claiming the wooden spoon.

Kenny-Dowall hasn't avoided off-field problems: in 2008 he was involved in a brawl at a fried chicken outlet that saw teammate Setaimata Sa charged with assault.

New coach Brian Smith, an arch-disciplinarian, instilled a new attitude. "We had a slogan - new attitude, new beginning," Kenny-Dowall said. "Everyone jumped on board and we stuck to it. We started working in the same direction."

Plucked out of the Junior Kiwis as a replacement on the 2007 Northern Hemisphere tour, Kenny-Dowall made a try-scoring test debut in the 22-12 victory over France. Overlooked so far in the Stephen Kearney era, it would be a surprise if the 22-year-old hasn't done enough to earn a recall for the Four Nations.