The Blake Austin Prophecy

I couldn't help but notice that Blake Austin is listed in jersey #21 (emergency reserve) for the Great Britain Lions this weekend.

This reminded me that Austin was at the centre of the most random almost prediction of my life. A near hit as bizarrely specific as it was trivial and pointless.

You don't need to like footy, or even know who Blake Austin is, to appreciate the brilliance (and maybe some luck) of this one...

In March 2015, I wrote the first of many (failed) attempts to predict the NRL ladder.

In it, I was pretty down on the Canberra Raiders chances, which is normal for me, even in seasons where they make the Grand Final.

I wrote:

If you asked me to nominate the player most likely to be unable to sign a deal in the NRL age 27, go to Super League and win Man of Steel, it would be Austin. That is not a compliment.

To be fair to Stone Cold Blake Austin, I actually like his playing style and rate him. And he seems like a really nice guy.

I just don't think halves in the NRL are allowed to play to his strengths all that much. He's better suited to 1980s footy, which is pretty much the same as English Super League footy now.

So I forgot all about this, and then, it happened:

In July 2018, Blake Austin signs for the Warrington Wolves, and if you go to his Wikipedia entry, you will learn that his date of birth is 1st February 1991. Which means he was unable* to sign a deal in the NRL age 27 and went to Super League. This is over three years after I wrote it.

*may have been able to sign an NRL deal, but clearly not a lucrative enough one to stay here

When I discovered this, I humble bragged hard on the Rob's Blog Facebook page, calling myself Robstradamus and concluding:

Blake Austin to be named English Super League Man of Steel in 2019 to complete the prophecy.

So how did completing the prophecy work out?

Well, this was the Man of Steel voting tally in 2019, when the votes went dark:

In first place, B Austin from Wolves with 25 points.

Then he suffered an ankle injury and missed the rest of the regular season. Jackson Hastings, another ex-NRL player, took the prize instead.

The good news is that Austin still has two more years on his contract with Warrington to win the Man of Steel and complete his destiny.