'I'm just Jonah' - Cunningham Jr on escaping dad's shadow

Jonah Cunningham came through the academy at St Helens and was given a senior contract in 2017 just before his father Keiron (right) left as head coach

When there is a statue of your dad outside the stadium of one of the most famous rugby league clubs in the land, avoiding the shadow it casts can be a challenge.

For Jonah Cunningham, son of St Helens great Keiron Cunningham, a move across to the other side of England, five hours away from his parents' house to the Norfolk town of Wymondham was not far enough.

Even playing rugby union did not work.

Because despite Cunningham saying he was "done" with the sport, after his own injury-hit career with Saints failed to take off as a youngster, rugby league and amateur club Anglian Vipers - and a little help from a social media algorithm - had other ideas.

"I moved to this town where no-one really knew what rugby league was," Cunningham told BBC Radio Norfolk.

"It was really nice because nobody knew of my name or my dad's name. So that was really good as well.

"Rugby kind of fell off, I just was really keeping up to date with it on the TV."

And one night in front of the TV it all changed.

"The Vipers came along," Cunningham said.

"I saw it on Facebook one night and I said to my missus, 'This is crazy.'

"The only rugby league club in, I don't know how many miles radius, has just popped up two minutes down the road from me.

"So I messaged as soon as I saw that post. I just wanted to play for the team."

Cunningham did just that for two years, alongside his job as a graphic designer, until a dislocated shoulder got in the way and forced him to ultimately stop playing.

And now he is the team's head coach.

"It's crazy. It just really excites me, but it really has felt like a bit of a dream come true, to be honest, because it never felt like it was going to happen," Cunningham said.

"As soon as I came out of rugby, I thought that was me done in terms of it forever, other than just sort of being a fan and watching.

"Now I've been really, really lucky to sort of dig my claws in and hopefully get the boys to a different level, just with that sort of experience and knowledge that I have got around the sport and the coaches that I've been coached by to bring that to the amateur game."

Jonah Cunningham played for the reserve side at St Helens, and had first-team loan spells with Sheffield, Leigh, Oldham, Workington and Rochdale

'It was nice not to be Jonah Cunningham. I was just Jonah'

A hooker, just like his dad, Cunningham was always aware comparisons with his father were inevitable.

And that was always going to be tough.

Wales and Great Britain international Keiron was a one-club man, making 496 appearances in a trophy-laden career that included five Super League titles and seven Challenge Cup wins.

He then went on to become Saints head coach, taking charge of 76 games in a two-and-a-half-year spell that ended in April 2017.

"He was one of the best players in the club's history. There's a statue of him outside the stadium and unfortunately I just decided to pick the exact same position as him," Cunningham said.

By his own admission, Cunningham's career "dropped off a lot sooner" than his dad's, and although he progressed through the academy at Saints and was promoted into the first-team squad in 2017 as a 17-year-old, the breakthrough never came.

After several loan spells that included stints with Leigh, Oldham and Rochdale, Cunningham quit the game to "build a career rather than trying to push my way into sport".

Then came the move away from St Helens - and rugby league - initially to Suffolk, where he ended up playing rugby union for Southwold.

That move brought not only a fresh challenge but some welcome anonymity.

"One of the really nice things that happened to me on that [first] day was a good few lads came up to me and asked if I've ever played rugby before," he said.

"The year before I was obviously in a professional set-up so it was really nice to not be Jonah Cunningham. I was just Jonah.

"People just knew me as me, rather than my dad or that figure above me."

The statue of Keiron Cunningham was unveiled in March 2010 to mark the hooker's outstanding career with St Helens

Understanding the 'slang' of Rugby League

But union was not really in Jonah's blood. League was.

So after a couple of years he came out of the 15-a-side code because "union wasn't my passion, I didn't really know the rules".

A move across the county border led to him rekindling that passion with the Vipers, first as a player and now as head coach.

The club are new, embarking on only their fourth season, but have big ambitions.

After winning the East Rugby League title last season, the club intend to turn professional this year and have been in talks with the Rugby Football League over joining League 1 - the third tier of the sport.

Jonah knows it is early in the Vipers' development but is impressed with the talent that he has got to work with.

"It's crazy, it's like a gold mine down here," he said.

"There's all these players that have got all this aggression that like the fast-paced game.

"There's specifically a prop forward that's at the Vipers now that's just making 100m breaks pretty much every game, so you've got to get that level up so that block is sort of being tested.

"So I think that us moving up into that higher league in terms of trying to get better competition is only going to better the boys and it's only going to better our experience as a club - it's really exciting."

Keiron Cunningham won the Challenge Cup seven times with Saints

With a lot of the Vipers' squad playing both codes, one of Cunningham's main priorities is to get them up to speed with "knowing rugby league".

"A lot of the boys are still playing in the union seasons and then coming into the league season, and in the first few games are a little bit sort of scratchy getting started on the rules," he said.

"My main aim for this season is to just get the boys actually fully understanding rugby league, and also being able to play it to a point that they can play against the people that have been playing it for years and years.

"It's almost like a bit of it's like a language. If you learn a language, you may know the specific rigidity of that language, but you don't know the slang terms and it's the slang terms that's the little 1% - the little things that you know in that game that can get you that advantage."

'The club don't want my name, they want me'

Vipers' recruitment of former South Africa players Dylan Venter and Mike Mavovana have helped boost both the talent pool and the profile of the club as they try to build on last season's promotion.

For Cunningham, although keen to be judged on his own merits, mining his dad's immense experience is something he values.

"I've always got him on the end of a phone, as well as a lot of others I've met during my other times at clubs that I can get in touch with and get advice from," he said.

"But I think just not having that external pressure of 'you're this, you're that, you're the other' - I've made my mark on this club through me.

"The club want me as a person, the club don't want my name, the club don't want anything to do with anybody else - it's just me, which feels really nice.

"It feels like I've achieved this myself and I know that I did in my playing career as well, but there is always that thing in the back of your mind saying, 'Your dad's done it.'

"My life's always sort of been a bit in the shadows of Keiron but it's really nice to now come out and be me and have my own opportunities."

And, who knows, if this opportunity with the Vipers marries its success with professionalism and more prosperity, maybe Cunningham will end up with a statue of his own.

Jonah Cunningham was talking to BBC Radio Norfolk's Jack Maclean.

Jonah Cunningham says the potential of the East Anglian Vipers squad is like a "gold mine"