Bathurst's Felix Quinn looks to bounce back from injury, lockdown with Northern Suburbs

Things were falling into place for him when he enjoyed one game of action in third grade, but then the COVID-19 Sydney lockdown struck.

It was cruel timing for a motivated Quinn, 22, who hasn't had many opportunities to make an impression for Norths since coming across from Manly.

The flanker and number 8 option will be hoping that 2022 is the year he gets back into a groove.

His injury-affected 2020 came about from a severe re-injury of his wrist, and after making a recovery from surgery he was disappointed to not have the chance to test his skills to a great extent.

"When I was playing four years ago for Bathurst High in year 12 I broke my wrist but I didn't know that I'd done it, and I only became aware of that last year when I re-injured it," he said.

"There wasn't much we could do outside of getting a reconstruction. I needed to get a big bone graft from my femur so they could rebuild my entire wrist.

"That kept me out of last season and then this year things have been on and off with COVID. That's made it hard to get quality football in."

Quinn's motivation to make the switch to Norths was heavily influenced by the move of former Manly coach Zak Beer to the Shoremen.

Since taking the jump across Quinn has been a big fan of the way both Beer and Norths have steered the ship.

"They're a really strong club. This year's season got called short but at the time the first grade side were sitting second on the ladder," he said.

"There's an ex-Manly coach who was coaching the second grade team and he would always give me a call up when one of their players was out and I'd go and train with them.

"Unfortunately he didn't get a first grade opportunity to coach so he went to Norths and he's been killing it there ever since. That definitely influenced my decision to go there, and he'll be head coach there next season."

Other life changes have helped the former Bathurst talent find extra motivation.

"In the meantime I've been studying and I've decided to do something different by moving into game design. That's definitely been keeping me busy," he said.

"I was in a cast for three months, and wasn't able to do anything for four months after that, so I started that course and I've enjoyed it a lot. I'm definitely looking forward to playing some footy next year though."

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