FULL CIRCLE

Proctor set to play his 250th NRL game in Titans clash

KEVIN Proctor will play his 250th NRL game on Saturday for a club based just 15 minutes north of where his rugby league journey began.

Plenty has changed since he walked in the gates of Palm Beach Currumbin State High School as a 15-year-old.

The battle scars of 12 NRL seasons with the Melbourne

Storm and Gold Coast Titans are writ large across his face.

The nose of a heavyweight boxer and a baritone voice so gravelly Darren Lockyer and Tommy Raudonikis would flinch illustrate the damage Proctor has sustained.

Through it all, some things haven’t changed a bit.

The “Sideshow Bob” haircut he rocked when raising the 2007 Arrive Alive Cup as PBC captain has lasted the distance, as has the work ethic that caught the eye of former Storm recruiter Peter O’Sullivan.

Proctor was always a warrior, his high school coach Rod Patison said.

“The first day I saw him was at the South Coast trials,” he said of Proctor, who on Saturday leads the Titans against Cronulla in Sydney.

“O’Sullivan asked me who was the best kid and we agreed on Kev Proctor in the under-15s. It turned out it was his first game of footy.”

Kiwi-born Proctor was raised in a rugby union family and had been days away from starting school at rugby nursery The Southport School until a change to PBC set him on the path to the NRL.

“He was a topline schoolboy footballer,” Patison said.

“He played three years with us and the Australian Schoolboys in 2006 and 2007.

“The trick to him was his two great assets; he was a great competitor but the other thing people don’t realise is he worked so hard on his core skills.

“He made his trade in Melbourne as a defensive rightedge back-rower but as an 18year-old he played on the left and his trademark was those offloads and his exceptional line-running.

“Kevvy set the standard for back-rowers at PBC for Ryan James, Shane Wright, Luke Garner and Keegan Hipgrave who modelled their game after him.

“The exciting thing is now Justin (Holbrook) is using him on the left we’re seeing those skills pop up again.”