It wasn’t long ago that Hull’s Joe Cator felt walking his dogs and turning out for his old amateur club might be progress - or even as good as it gets.
After twice rupturing the same Achilles and spending 18 months crocked, it’s understandable why the combative loose forward didn’t set himself any lofty targets. He initially snapped his Achilles against former club Hull KR in August 2021. Cator, 25, returned at Leeds seven months later - only to cruelly suffer a recurrence less than an hour into his comeback.
The anguish in his face was plain to see as it dawned on him he was back to square one, a crushing blow that completely wrote off another season. Indeed, the surgeon who operated on Cator’s Achilles said it was the first time in his 25-year career that he’d seen anyone re-rupture it. But, thankfully, the popular player has brilliantly bounced back from his horrific run of bad luck.
Making his ‘second’ comeback in this season’s opener against Castleford, Cator has gone on to play all but three of Hull’s 18 games ahead of Saturday's battle with Super League leaders Catalans. Thriving under coach Tony Smith, the Hull-born player explained: “I was confident when I got back and with a new coach in, I was just ready for anything. I said to my missus I just had to go in with a fresh head. If I had to play reserves or go to Newcastle in the Championship, to get my way into the team, they were genuine options.
“And if anything bad happened, I had to keep thinking I am in a much better position right now than what I was ten months ago. If I was playing for Skirlaugh first-team I would be able to do that. And I could take my dogs out for a walk. I’m healthy. But, thankfully, I didn’t have to do any of that.”
Instead, Cator has established himself as an important cog in a Hull side who have reignited hopes of making the play-offs after last week’s stunning 34-6 destruction of champions St Helens. He said: “It’s not all been straight away. I’ve had to work hard to work my way up the pecking order. But to finally get to this point, have this solid run of games, find some form and play well, I am really happy.
“In the same breath, I want more. I’m greedy! But I’m not daft. I realise a few bad games, I’m back down that pecking order. I am here now and I want to be here to stay and get better.”
As do Hull. They face a stern test of their credentials against Steve McNamara's title challengers. Cator said: "Catalans are the leaders but we’ve tussled with the top of the league before and knocked them off. When you look at Wigan, Warrington were top when we played them, Huddersfield were supposed to be one of them and we turned them over and now St Helens, we’ve beaten them all.
"We should go in with confidence and we are. This season we’ve done it the other way around: we normally start like a house on fire and fall off. But it looks like we're finding ouor form towards the end of the year now which is a good sign for us. Weve been building in our last four or five games and you can see strides we've made. We are a different side to the start of the season."
Meanwhile, with him being in such good nick, will he save rejoining amateurs Skirlaugh until he’s retired and nearer 35 than 25? Cator replied: “No. I’ve already said I’m not doing all this for free!”
