The Rise, Fall and Resurrection of Bryce Cartwright
From schoolboy stud and future superstar to a last-chance contract, the story of Bryce Cartwright hasn't gone to plan, but the final act is yet to be written.
I still remember what must’ve been the 2007 or ‘08 NSWRL State Championship.
Sitting in the boot of the car, begging Mum to let me open the container of homemade lamingtons at 7:00AM, there wasn’t much to do other than look, listen and wait.
With all the players with their respective teams, all that’s left are hundreds of waiting parents. Some sit contently, looking forward to a day full of fun footy for little Billy. Others walk around because their anxiety won’t let them sit down, hoping they don’t need to spend a fortune on ice bags afterwards.
The days of a fun kids’ footy are a few years old, now. They’re all too big, strong and determined.
Names to look out for are whispered among parents and kids alike.
The echoes of one name drown out the others, but he’s on our team. Every opposition dad made damn sure that their son heard it, though. Not that they had any hope of containing him.
I didn’t care. My eyes were on the Lamingtons.
Cartwright is a name almost as synonymous with Rugby League, and certainly Penrith Rugby League, as Bruce Lee with martial arts and maple syrup with pancakes. Bacon and eggs. Tea and biscuits.
Bryce’s Grandfather and patriarch of the Cartwright clan, Merv Cartwright is one of the more prominent figures in Panthers history. Perhaps the most important person in the club’s history as a driving force behind them entering First-Grade in 1966.
After Merv’s death in 2011, Lew Zivanovic, a then-prominent figure at the Panthers, spoke to The Weekender about the Panthers’ legend.
“The dynasty he created through his family spans the last 50 years in rugby league in Penrith.
“If he wasn’t around at the time, Penrith wouldn’t be in the first grade competition.”
The legacy of Merv lives on through the ‘Merv Cartwright Medal’, awarded to the Panther’s ‘best and fairest’, seen most recently around Dylan Edwards’ neck.
Then, of course, there’s John.
Playing 184 games for Penrith over an 11-year career, his career included 8 State of Origin matches, more than a dozen appearances for Australia and 2 Premierships. He’s since gone on to have a busy coaching career, which includes being the inaugural coach of the Gold Coast Titans and working as an assistant with the Premiership-winning North Queensland Cowboys.
Bryce’s father, David, also laced his boots for the Panthers in the ’80s, and I haven’t even mentioned Michael and Cliff.
Living up to the expectations created by his predecessors was never an issue for Bryce. He had to live up to his own talent.
For most young stars it’s their physical prowess that sets them apart.
It’s why blokes like Kelepi are so revered at an early age. It isn’t hyperbole to say that he was built like a strong, athletic grown man at 13 years old. He was.
This reliance on physical dominance is a big reason why the majority of Australian Schoolboys don’t make the NRL, or fail to excel once they’re there.
For the most part, you can’t physically dominate in the NRL.
Standing at well over 6ft and nearing 110 kilos today, and not far off those numbers as a teen, Bryce wasn’t exactly lacking in physical ability. Despite being one of the bigger players on most fields he ran on to, he never played big.
He’d much rather tip-toe around the field with his strange running style, offloading the ball at will, sneaking grubbers through the defensive line and doing pretty much whatever he wanted.
Of course, he kicked goals too.
Being the kid that’s rained with praise and all the dads whisper about like he’s Voldermort has its disadvantages.
From St Mary’s Saints to Patrician Brothers Blacktown, Holden Cup and the NRL, Bryce was the golden boy. You’d never catch him being applauded for his Gallen-esque hard work or Hindmarshian effort. It just wasn’t part of his game.
Who could blame him? It never had to be.
More often than not, there were only a few things that would happen when he got the ball.
He’d put someone through a hole, take a lackadaisical hit-up and either use his long arms to sneak an off-load or submit to the tackle, or put through a lovely kick.
Now, he was so talented that most of the time his deficiencies didn’t matter. If some lazy defence gave up a try, he’d just make sure his team scored two.
I mean, come on.
He could do things that not many people who have ever played could do.
Not people his size. Anyone.
After an injury-shortened debut season and a strong showing in his 22 matches the following year, it was in 2016 that Cartwright made his mark. At just 21 years old, the Penrith youngster was on the brink of State of Origin; named 18th man in Game II.
Young, one of the most dangerous offensive players in the competition and still so far from his potential, Bryce was ready to take the next step in his career after a big extension with the Panthers.
It was only months later that his career trajectory would take a nosedive.
It wouldn’t be until 2021 that Bryce’s form would (somewhat) right itself.
In the dying embers of 2016, Bryce was the target of ‘revenge porn’, with his ex-girlfriend Brittany Hura sharing explicit images of and threatening the young star.
With the photos, personal suggestions and direct threats of violence, the reaction by the media was far different than it would be today.
Emma Freedman suggested that it was Cartwright’s fault for sharing the images with his partner,
“I don’t understand the obsession with getting your phone out and taking photos of yourself with no clothes on, I really don’t understand it,”.
Stupid? Perhaps. An understandable thing to do? Certainly.
While Ryan Girdler seemed to think it was Cartwright’s fault for not being sufficiently wary of a woman scorned.
Today, Bryce would have been covered as the rightful victim he was.
That wasn’t the case.
The snowball kept rolling.
In March of 2017 bad turned to worse for Bryce, with his name once again in the papers for the wrong reasons with substantial allegations being made public claiming he tried to pay off and coerce a former partner (nope, not the same one) into an abortion.
It was reported that Cartwright, in conjunction with Lew Zivanovic, the ‘fixer’, offered her a contract for $50,000 if she were to get an abortion.
The woman described the pressure as so intense she felt she “had no other option than to get rid of the baby” as Cartwright had allegedly made it clear he would not be involved with the child.
The back-to-back off-field scandals, the media backlash and the events themselves, took an obvious toll on the 22-year-old. His football suffered.
In the 2016 season, Bryce played 26 matches, averaged 116 running metres, made tackles at a 88% clip, had 10 line breaks, scored 8 tries and was a key piece to Penrith’s 6th-placed finish.
In 2017, amid these multiple scandals, Bryce played 14 games, averaging only 51m per game.
It wasn’t over quite yet.
In August Brittany Huga, the perpetrator of the ‘revenge porn’ attack, was found dead in her home. Of course, that was enough of a reason for the previous story to start circling once again.
With all that coming in less than 12 months, it’s no surprise his form plummeted.
At the end of the 2016 season, Bryce was the Prince of Penrith with a contract that would have him there until 2021. Only a year later, he was leaving money on the table to get out of his contract and head to the Gold Coast with hopes a new environment and his old coach Garth Brennan, would revitalise his mind and career.
That… wasn’t the case.
The same problems of attitude and unwillingness to work hard continued to plague his game and now there was none of the jaw-dropping offensive exploits to make up for it.
Starting the season at lock in a Titans victory, it was only round 12 that Bryce was dropped to reserve grade.
As he’s prone to do, Mal Meninga didn’t exactly mince words at the time.
“His attitude seems to be poor… he’s missing a lot of tackles.
“He played really well for Garth Brennan in reserve grade, maybe that’s where he should go to find that love of the game again and then come back.”
Cartwright would only play 14 NRL matches in 2018.
You didn’t need to be Sherlock Holmes to deduce that something needed to change.
Luckily, Bryce realised it too. Or, said he did.
I don’t want it to happen ever again. I know I’m 1,000 times better than what I was last year,”
“I wasn’t working hard enough. I got here and just thought it was going to happen and didn’t put in the work I needed to.”
With some reflection and advice from renowned hard-worker Nathan Peats, he was ready to work his way back into some sort of form.
2019 was a season to forget for the Titans, but for Bryce, it was a return to NRL footy and a minuscule inclination towards a return to form, playing 23 matches for the wooden-spoon winning side.
Of course, that hopeful future was quickly crushed by off-field nonsense.
At the height of the Covid-19 Pandemic and lockdowns for everyone except the most essential workers, the NRL and Peter V’Landys were searching for ways to let the game continue.
Part of the return-to-play regulations settled on was mandatory influenza (Flu) vaccination.
Cartwright was the first of 3% of NRL players who refused to be vaccinated.
This was hardly a surprise when less than a year before, Cartwright’s wife at the time, Shanelle, shared her anti-vax views and her opposition to immunising their children on Instagram.
As we all know, these protesting players were eventually allowed to return to play.
But, once again, Bryce was in the spotlight for all the wrong reasons.
Once again, his football suffered.
Cartwright played only 7 games in 2020 before he and the club mutually agreed to part ways to allow Bryce to return and try to continue his career closer to home.
On September 17th of 2020, Bryce signed a one-year deal with his biggest rivals from the time he was 15; the Parramatta Eels.
It’s estimated that Bryce was on a contract worth $450,000 per year at the Titans.
He signed to the Eels for just over the minimum.
Signing Bryce at that price is a no-brainer. You either get a really useful rugby league player, or you get rid of him.
He either commits to working hard, improves his defence and willingness to do the hard work, or doesn’t.
It’s not earth-shattering analysis to know where Cartwright needed refinement.
Brad Arthur had this to say to NRL.com after the signing.
"We talked about how we could help him and also how he could help us as a team and a club. He was on board with it and agreed.
"There's probably not a lot we need to worry about with him skill wise or footy wise.
"We've just got to improve the style of footy that he's willing to play, and he's open to it. We want to change his mentality around that and have him feeling better about his game.”
Arthur said Cartwright was “training excellently'“ and according to Marata Niukore, he was one of the leaders during fitness drills.
After almost 10 years of near-constant setbacks both self-inflicted and otherwise, this time it was a physical blow that halt Bryce’s development.
Breaking his jaw at training, Cartwright wouldn’t make his NRL debut for Parramatta until round 5.
He didn’t set the house on fire.
There was, however, a clear improvement from the extravagance and laziness that plagued his career.
His first season in Parramatta didn’t jump off the page, averaging just over 65m and 16 tackles a game but he did a job when he came on and earned a two-year extension.
In 2022, with the rise of Makehesi Makatoa and Jakob Arthur, Bryce was unable to cement himself in the squad. Once Ryan Matterson made the permanent shift to the bench with Niukore playing lock, there wasn’t a spot for Bryce in most games.
Nevertheless, he performed well enough in the time he earned. There were even those who thought he should have been on the bench in the grand final over Arthur, thanks to his ability to play in the forwards and halves in a pinch.
Of course, the Eels would lose to Penrith.
In 2015 Gus Gould wrote an article for the Sydney Morning Herald applauding Bryce and the group of youngsters coming through. Among that, Gus asked three questions that would prove of the utmost importance.
“How do you coach someone like Bryce? At what point does the team bend the rules for the individual? At what point does the individual bend for the team?”
It seems Brad Arthur has found the answer to the first question, though it was previously unknown. The answer to the second seems to never, for Bryce at least.
Bryce has answered the third question with his play this year for the Eels. He has bent to the will of the Eels and their coach, and has been reaping his rewards in 2023.
I don’t mean incredible in the six line breaks, 5 tackle breaks, 2 tries, 200 metres and 35 tackles sense.
I mean incredible in its most definitive; almost impossible to believe.
Believe me, I felt like I’d seen something bordering on supernatural when I saw Bryce take a normal, run-of-the-mill, strong hit-up in round one.
I can’t remember seeing Bryce Cartwright take a tough hit-up with his team fighting their way off their try-line. Jog and submit to the defence or run into open space, sure. Running hard into a set defence and making metres? Never.
Bryce’s best season was 2016. He averaged 116 metres and 26 tackles per game, with 3 missed. Granted, he spent about half the season at five-eighth.
In 5 games so far this season, he’s averaging 145m, making 27 tackles and missing only 2.5 tackles each game.
Importantly, he is averaging only 1.2 errors per game in 2023, compared to nearly 3 errors way back in 2023.
More crucial still, his tackle efficiency currently sits at 91.2%.
For reference, here are the tackle percentages of some of the best second-rowers in the NRL:
Hudson Young - 87.1%
Viliame Kikau - 88.8%
Haumole Olakau’atu - 93.5%
Keaon Koloamatangi - 93%
Jeremiah Nanai - 87.7%
Here’s how Bryce’s 145m a game matches up against those same players, who we can all agree are among the best in the comp.
Hudson Young - 92m
Viliame Kikau - 77m
Haumole Olakau’atu - 140m
Keaon Koloamatangi - 142m
Jeremiah Nanai - 56m
Olakau’atu and Koloamatangi are probably top five in anyone’s list of second rowers, with most people would having one of them somewhere in their NSW Blues team.
Bryce is averaging more metres than both, and more tackles than Olakau’atu with only a slightly worse efficiency.
Is Cartwright better than the players listed above? Perhaps not.
What’s certain, is that he’s taking more runs, making more metres, committing fewer errors, and making more tackles more efficiently than the year he took the world by storm.
There’s every chance that wading through muddy off-field drama, combined with the rigours of NRL life, ground away the confidence that made him a generational star.
Or maybe it’s all there just bubbling underneath the surface until he’s in a position to unleash it.
No matter the case, the game, his status and his role have changed.
This week the Eels welcomed the return of Shaun Lane onto their left edge; where Bryce has resided for the first five matches.
It was easy to assume that Bryce would just slip onto the bench.
Instead, J’maine Hopgood will move to the bench, with Bryce switching to the Eels’ right edge.
Whether it’s personal reflection, a mental switch that flicked, a piece of familial advice, being back home or the work of Brad Arthur, the Bryce Cartwright of 2023 is one never seen before.
This isn’t an article explaining all the ways that Bryce is awesome. This is a deep dive into the fact that, finally, after nearly a decade of wasted talent, he’s playing normally.
Hell, there aren’t even any highlights I can embed.
Maybe he has over-corrected, but the player he is now is 10x the player he was at the Titans and at only 28 years old, there’s still plenty of time for Bryce to find a happy medium between his two rugby league personalities.
Maybe it’s the Patties colours of Parramatta that have rejuvenated him like the Lazarus pit. They’ll love to take the credit.
Maybe the superstar he was bound to be isn’t there anymore. If that’s the case, he has secured himself a career until he’s ready to hang up the boots if he continues like this.
The rest of the competition better hope so.
If Bryce can take his 2023 and 2016 and fuse them together, he’ll emerge as the rugby league version of Gotenks, or Maltersers and popcorn if that’s more your style.
Thanks for reading!
I write stuff throughout the NRL season.
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