‘The guy is a weapon’: Sydney’s hardest-working footy player is finally getting his dues

Most days, Wes Thomas gets up at 3.30am to hit the gym before work starts at 6am.

After a full day as a scaffolder and formworker, Thomas then trains with the Warringah Rats’ first-grade side most evenings, before heading home, climbing into bed and doing it all over again.

But those, it turns out, are the easy days. It’s only when the weekend rolls around that Thomas really gets busy.

On Saturdays, Thomas works another full shift on site from 6am before – with a little early mark – racing across to play hooker for the Rats in the Shute Shield.

The next day Thomas squeezes in family time and kids’ sport before backing up and playing another 80 minutes for the Mona Vale Raiders rugby league side, in the Northern Beaches A-grade competition.

Exhausted yet?

“I definitely feel it on Sunday night,” Thomas laughs. “But it’s good fun.“

The last few weeks have been a bit calmer for Thomas – just one game a weekend – as the Rats’ premiership campaign gathered pace in the 15-man game, and the Raiders’ finals run ended in the league.

And there will be just one job on the 27-year-old’s mind on Saturday, when Warringah take on Easts in the Shute Shield decider at Leichhardt Oval, with the Rats aiming to win just their second premiership in nine grand final appearances.

Thomas, who grew up playing league and union in Dee Why, was on the bench for Warringah in their last grand final in 2019 and, as a ball-running hooker, has since become a Rat Park stalwart. He brought up his 100th game last year.

But three years ago, Thomas also started doubling up and playing league on Sundays, too. Playing in the centres or the back row, he did two seasons with Cromer Kingfishers before moving to the Mona Vale Raiders – home of the clan Trbojevic.

“A few of the boys came and asked me to be in a team there, they’ll help you out with a few matchies [match payments] and stuff like that. That’s a help for us at home,” Thomas said. “I guess I thought if I got a good recovery in on like a Sunday morning, my body would be sweet.

“I am actually very lucky my partner [Jade] carries most of the weight with the two little ones. She lets me rest a bit at home.”

Having braced for a nasty injury update on most Sunday nights, Warringah coach Josh Holmes would understandably prefer if his star hooker played just one code – for him. But he gets why he does both.

“He just handles it as no thing, the guy is a weapon,” Holmes said. “He plays league from a financial support point of view to help his family, to earn some extra coin.

“That’s just the type of guy he is. He’s a big family man. He’s just a man who just leads by actions, like turns up, trains really hard, never says anything, just gets on with it. The boys really appreciate what he does. They worry about him playing league because they know if he got injured, it would leave a massive hole in our team.”

Earning modest match payments in both codes, Thomas had resolved in his mind last summer that he would abandon the tiring double-act and focus on one this year – probably league.

But after losing a tight semi-final with the Rats last year, Thomas went around for another year in the Shute Shield – and, two weeks ago, everything changed.

After yet another hugely consistent season with Warringah, Thomas won the prestigious Ken Catchpole Medal – the award for the best player in the Shute Shield, earned via weekly voting. After Phil Kearns (1993) and Mahe Vailanu (2020), Thomas became only the third hooker to win in its 43-year history.

“I was a bit shocked,” he said. “My family and stuff were very happy. I was stoked.”

Thomas is so quietly spoken he asked, unsuccessfully, if someone else could accept the award on his behalf.

Holmes said: “The boys really appreciate Wes, and the icing on the cake was for him to finally get some reward with the Catchpole medal. It would be really nice to see him picked up [by a professional club] and be given an opportunity, because the guy has been killing it for years.”

And, right on cue, that’s what happened. Last week, Thomas’ phone began to ring with potentially life-changing offers from clubs interested in paying him to play footy full-time.

“A few teams reached out for next year and stuff like that; I have been talking to a few teams overseas as well,” he said.

Many coaches around the globe know the Shute Shield well enough to understand you can’t fluke a Catchpole medal. Among them is Western Force coach Simon Cron, who led Norths to a Shute Shield win in 2016.

Cron is flying Thomas to Perth on a short-term deal next week, and the hooker will suit up for the Force in the Super AU competition in September.

“I am always keeping an eye out for guys with talent and a work ethic and Wes is one of those, clearly,” Cron said. “We are really keen to get him over and give him an opportunity.”

Early in the year, Thomas told Jade he’d give footy away in 2026 to help out more at home with kids Noah and Aloha.

“But then I have been telling her about these opportunities, and she’s like, ‘OK, well, you have to take these because we don’t know if it will ever come again’,” Thomas said.

Holmes, who played 59 Super Rugby games as a halfback for the Waratahs, Force, Brumbies and Rebels, reckons Thomas has all the tools to seize his chance.

“He just keeps putting his hand up, and if there’s a few little things that he can work on, well, that’s what the systems are for,” Holmes said.

“Because the rest of the game is absolutely there. I don’t think you’d find a better ball-carrying hooker at the moment than Wes.”