Balmain junior Marc Tannous is in the midst of his first full NRL pre-season, and the 18-year-old is relishing the chance to learn from players with experience in the top grade.
Tannous, the younger brother of former Wests Tigers lower-grade player, Mikey Tannous, is another of the club’s impressive young halves prospects emerging through the ranks.
After featuring in a part-time capacity last pre-season, the Concord-Burwood Wolves product is enjoying showcasing his talents to the coaching staff on a more regular basis.
“Having supported the Tigers my whole life, getting coached by some of my favourite players like Benji is honestly a dream come true,” Tannous said.
“Being a half myself, I’ve leant on the spine players a lot, so I’ve tried to soak in as much as I can from players like Lachie, Bud and Api.
“With them having played first grade, they can give me insight into what it's like and even some of the back-rowers like Samuela and Reuben Porter have been good, just showing me how to put them into better positions.”
Another strong influence on Marc’s life is his Lebanese heritage.
The half has savoured the opportunity to train with some of the Cedars star players this pre-season and he has international aspirations of his own.
“I'm a super proud Lebanese boy, I’ve been really connected with my culture from a very young age.
“If I can represent Lebanon in the future in rugby league, it’d be a dream come true for me and my family.
“Learning off Doueihi and Twal who’ve played for Lebanon before is great and embracing our culture around the club is a big thing that we can do.
“If we can all don the Lebanese jersey together, it'd be truly amazing.”
As he moves further into the pre-season, rather than setting lofty goals, Tannous is taking things one step at a time.
A classy footballer, Marc simply wants to play to his strengths.
“I just want to keep training to the best of my ability and keep soaking in everything I can off the older boys.
“My strengths are in my organisation, my ability to get the team around the park and just doing the little one-percenters, so I just want to keep showing that.
“I don't want to look too far ahead to next year but I’ll just try to play some consistently good footy and take each game at a time.”
