HOW IT ALL STARTED

Q Tell us a bit about your rugby league journey. How did you make the grade?

A I was an OK player as a junior, played in the halves growing up just here in Tully, in the local Innisfail junior rugby league. I didn’t make many rep teams as a young fella but cracked my first rep team in under-14s North Queensland. I was lucky enough to make the Queensland side and the next year was under-15 schoolboys and same thing, went away with the Peninsula side, we made the final, lost by two points but from that five of us made the Queensland team, which I was lucky enough to be captain of. Brett Anderson was in there. We grew up playing footy together so I was lucky to be five-eighth and have a centre like him outside me. We both got picked up by Parramatta at that and being from Tully, I didn’t like Syd- ney at all, but I was lucky Melbourne came in, they were based with Brisbane Norths and I had a few friends in Brisbane, so that appealed to me a bit more. I signed a four-year deal with Melbourne for Year 11 and 12 and two years out of school.

Q You had a pretty gun side there at Norths. Who else did you have around you there?

A My first year at school I got an opportunity to play in the Colts grand final and yeah, we had 11 NRL players out of that. Guys like Sika Manu, the Tongan captain, who was our winger. We had Greg Inglis (pictured) in the centres, Sam Tagataese, Scott Anderson, who used to play with the Broncos, Adam Blair. All of us were 17, 18, 19 playing Queensland Cup, which was awesome. I loved it and had a few preseasons with Melbourne and had a few trials with them.