There's a golf course out near Heathridge, Western Australia, that Jack Cole hasn't played yet, but he's already found it, the way you do with a life you're about to step into.
For many, it would be a strange kind of homesickness, missing a place you've never been, but for the 22-year-old, he's already pictured it.
Cole grew up in Orange, a NSW country town where the footy field doubles as paddocks, and everyone knows whose kid you are before you introduce yourself.
Thirty minutes away, in Blayney, a boy named Liam Henry was growing up the same way, with rugby league as the dream they wanted to achieve.
Neither of them knew it yet, but their careers were about to run on parallel tracks for the best part of a decade, through Penrith's junior ranks, into first grade, and now, improbably, onto the same plane to Western Australia.
They made their NRL debuts together. They scored their first tries in the same game against the North Queensland Cowboys in round 27 of 2022.
They have each won a premiership at the Panthers and are working towards their second.
This year, they both signed with Perth Bears, rugby league's newest club without its own history or a single game played, yet it has two boys from central-west New South Wales.
"Cole's a great player and a great fellow, so very, very lucky to debut and share those moments with him," Henry told Zero Tackle.
Cole tells much the same story from the other side, having a second to himself to process the timeline between two lives.
"It's pretty wild, to be honest," he said, thinking about how neatly their timelines have lined up.
Both are leaving Penrith at the peak of the club's success, walking away from a system that, by Cole's own admission, has given him every opportunity he's had since he was fifteen.
Neither pretends that's a small thing to give up, but both talk about Perth the same way: not as an escape, but as a chance to stop waiting.
For Cole, the appeal was straightforward.
The chance to nail down a genuine starting spot rather than continue filling in around injuries and suspensions, as talented as the roster around him has always been.
Cole has been with Penrith since he was 15, and he revealed he met with the Bears officials in Sydney rather than flying west; a few conversations and phone calls were enough to convince him to sign a three-year deal until the end of 2029.
What struck him most was what Mal Meninga told him about how the club plans to build itself.
"He just spoke to me about just being a family-first club. He said the way they're recruiting is just trying to find a bunch of good, genuine people before footy players," Cole shared.
"I think that's really important, especially for culture. If you have a good group of boys, nice people, then obviously footy will go well off the back of that with a connected crew like that.
"I think that the most appealing thing is that everyone he's getting seems like they're hardworking and just genuine, good boys. That's what I liked most about it."
Henry's reasoning carries a similar shape. He hadn't set foot in Western Australia before he signed, but flew over afterwards with his family to see for themselves over a few days.
What he came back with was less a scouting report and more a good feeling that he made the right decision in signing a four-year deal until the end of 2030.
"What they want to do and the facilities they're building and where we'll play, it seems terrific," Henry admitted.
"I'm really excited for what the future holds."
Henry gave such high praise with this sentence about his first impressions of the Bears and WA.
"I feel like it would be a great place to raise a family as well."
For Cole, lifestyle in WA was very appealing to him and his partner, Bailie-Rose Miller.
"I just felt like it was a good opportunity for me and my partner," he explained.
"I love my dog; he's like my kid," Cole said with a whole smile.
"Obviously the footy is first, but I feel like the lifestyle is going to be cool too. Near the beach, I love just being near the beach, and so does my partner and my dog."
Neither is going to Perth blind or alone.
Ben Gardiner, a former Panthers assistant coach, is now Mal Meninga's assistant for the first two seasons before taking over as the Bears coach.
Scott Sorensen, their teammate, will head to Perth too.
It's enough that Perth is starting to look less like a fresh start and more like an outpost on the very culture both men are leaving behind.
That's not lost on either of them. Cole talked about wanting to take what he's learned at Penrith and hand it down to teammates who haven't experienced it yet, to build a hard-working culture from scratch, the way it was once built around him.
Nobody expects much from the Bears in year one, Cole admitted, but that's the point, to have something to prove together rather than on their own.
For now, though, both are still Panthers, still chasing a win against the Newcastle Knights on Sunday afternoon and a Grand Final victory before they become foundation pieces for another club.
Soon, two boys from the bush, thirty minutes apart growing up, about to be a lot further than that from home, together, at least, for however long it takes to build something new.
If it all sticks, it could become their new long-term home.
