Answering Moose’s call
Driscoll charged ahead in soccer until fateful day sparked league shift
LEGENDARY commentator Rex Mossop issued Damian Driscoll his league calling and the former Chargers player has been listening ever since.
A soccer player all through his junior days, Driscoll heard the dulcet tones of “Moose” and jumped ship aged 14.
As a hardworking forward,
Driscoll would go on to play under-21s for Newcastle Knights and 81 first-grade games for Wests, Gold Coast Chargers, Manly and the Northern Eagles from 1995-2001.
“Rex Mossop was calling the footy and Dad used to watch it,” Driscoll, 47, recalled.
“Like any kid I thought ‘that looks pretty good’ so I decided to have a go.
“I played soccer until I was 14. My dad is from England and soccer is what he was interested in.
“But then I had a trial for the Newcastle Knights and it just went from there.
“You could call it my lucky break because I wasn’t a superstar.”
These days the CEO of Intrust
Super Cup club Burleigh, Driscoll took a winding path to league administration after unwittingly being caught in the middle of the Super League war.
His time with the Magpies would end with a merger with Balmain, the Chargers folded, Manly united with North Sydney and their offspring, Northern Eagles, would last just three years.
“Back in those days it would have been in the under-21s,” Driscoll said of his first paid contract.
“I ended up playing first grade under (Wests coach) Tommy Raudonikis and it was probably worth a couple of hundred dollars (per game).
“But I was at the wrong club during the Super League war.
“(Before footy) I was doing a mix of part-time jobs.
“I was like any 19-year-old and just trying to survive.”
Driscoll also spent time at the Woy Woy Roosters on the NSW Central Coast, with the club in April confirming their backers, the Easts Group, would pull all funding.
This prompted the immediate and permanent closure of Woy Woy Leagues Club, leading to an uncertain future for one of the Coast’s oldest senior rugby league clubs.