Orange's Jack Cole excited to make NRL debut with Penrith Panthers

A day later and the news still hadn't really hit the Orange CYMS junior.

"I literally can't explain what the feeling will be like," Cole said.

"I don't reckon it will sink in until I actually play."

The 19-year-old playmaker joined the Panthers ahead of the 2019 season. He started out in Harold Matthews, before he progressed to the club's SG Ball, Jersey Flegg and NSW Cup sides.

Had you asked Cole at the start of the year what his expectations were for his first full season living in Penrith, not even he could have imagined his meteoric rise.

"I didn't think it would come this quick," he said.

"I have a diary that I write in and before I moved down to Penrith at the start of the year, I had as my goal for 2022 of playing one NSW Cup game. It's a shock.

"Being down there this year and training all the time, as opposed to just coming down one day a week has helped me a lot. I'm learning more and getting around the boys more. I think that's had a good impact on me."

So what was it like in the lead-up for the five-eighth by trade to find out he would making the trip to Townsville to take on the North Queensland Cowboys?

"I was back in Orange over the weekend and I wasn't planning on to come back down to Penrith until Tuesday because that's when I was meant to have training," he said.

"My NSW Cup coach, Peter Wallace, rang me up and he asked me if I could come back down that afternoon because the NRL team needed me to fill in for numbers at training the next day."

The next call Cole got was from Cleary himself.

"Ivan pretty much said the same thing, but that I was going to be in the 19-man squad going up to Townsville on the weekend. I was thinking I'd be 18th or 19th man and just go up there for the trip.

"Then at training on Tuesday he pulled me aside and told me I was playing. I didn't really know what to say to him. I still don't know what to say."

Cole was named on the interchange for Saturday's clash against the Cowboys. While he doesn't know how many minutes or exactly what position he will be playing, he is determined to give it his all and knows he has the backing of the club behind him.

"The Penrith boys are all so good about it," he added.

"They were congratulating us, hugging us and they get amongst it and they love seeing that kind of stuff."

But Cole won't be the only Central West product making his NRL debut for the Panthers in the final game of the regular season.

Liam Henry, a Blayney Bears junior, will also join Cole on the bench.

The 20-year-old prop trained with the Panthers NRL squad during pre-season before linking up with the NSW Cup side. He was promoted to a development player for the 2022 and 2023 seasons, and will progress to the top 30 squad in 2024.

Saturday's game will kick off at 7.35pm.