Tough love for Wallace
JARROD Wallace grew up getting beaten around the bush.
He was no schoolboy’s football prodigy. Queensland’s latest State of Origin debutant was brought up on a diet of late tackles and sideline sledges.
Being the son of a bush footy legend gave Wallace his rugby league grounding but it came with its share of scrutiny.
“Always,” Craig Wallace says when asked if Jarrod was a target of rival players.
“You’re always gonna cop that, especially down Coffs Harbour way. He copped a fair bit. He held his guns and held strong, he really ripped in. It hasn’t come easy to him. It hasn’t been handed to him.
“He’s come through the bush and played against tough men at a young age so I think that’s gonna help him a lot.”
So what was Queensland’s new metre-eater doing in Blues heartland?
Wallace was born on the Gold Coast and started playing rugby league as a four-year-old at Runaway Bay, where Craig played in the senior grades.
The Seagulls were part of the Group 18 competition run by the NSW Country Rugby League. Craig even pulled on a Blue jersey for NSW Country.
He took up a player-coaching role in Mudgee in 2002 then headed to Coffs Harbour in 2004 to guide the Sawtell Panthers where he reached the pinnacle of his career.
“I debuted Jarrod (in Agrade) at Sawtell and I debuted my other two boys (Cooper and Logan) at Parkwood,” Craig said.
“I played with all three of them. That was a goal and I achieved it so I can be happy now and sit back and watch them grow up. Having the opportunity to debut him back when he was only a baby was a massive thing.
“He actually said to me that I wasn’t allowed to retire until he played with me. It happened, which is probably the highlight of my career.”
Wallace, 25, knows rugby league was ingrained in him from a young age.
“Coming out of school I never really thought about anything else other than footy and I pretty much put that down to Dad,” the Gold Coast Titans prop said.
“He was always harder on me than anyone else, especially coming up in those later years when I was playing with him because he knew what I was capable of.
“He showed me a bit more tough love then maybe he would show someone else but he knew I was either better where I’d stuffed up or he was trying to help me.
“That’s obviously made me the player I am today and I couldn’t thank him enough.”