The lion that roared: The Peter Ryan story

WHEN Peter Ryan tasted premiership success with the ACT Brumbies in 2001 he became the first man ever to win both NRL and Super Rugby titles.

WHEN Laidley's favourite footy son Peter Ryan tasted premiership success with the ACT Brumbies in 2001 he became the first man ever to win both NRL and Super Rugby titles.

It was a remarkable achievement from an uncompromising competitor who became known throughout both codes as one of the most devastating tacklers ever seen on a football field.

Laidley will host league trials between Ipswich and Easts today so it is timely to look back at Ryan's early years before he went on to become a household name.

As a player, Ryan won first grade premiership rings with the Brisbane Broncos in 1993 and 1997, along with the 2001 Super 12 title.

He would have played in the NRL 1998 grand final win over the Bulldogs had he not been suspended.

Ryan was also on Wayne Bennett's coaching staff when the Broncos won the 2006 premiership.

But it all started back when Ryan was a youngster running around for the Laidley Lions.

"I started playing for the Laidley Lions when they didn't have really young teams, so I played under eights for three years in a row," Ryan says.

"Dad had the butcher shop there and we grew up in the township.

"We had a small block of land just outside of town so, as kids, if we weren't riding horses or trying to ride cattle we were either training for footy or playing footy."

Ryan was a ball boy for the senior Laidley side and recalls the days when his vocabulary was enhanced by listening to then coach Tom Raudonikis rip into his players at half time.

"I used to run up and down the sideline with the footy and that was the next best job in the place without being on the field. You were close enough to the action where you could hear it and feel it," he says.

"Tommy Raudonikis was the head coach of the A grade side and I always made sure I was close enough to hear some of the colourful language that Tommy used to come out with at half time.

"As a God fearing Catholic boy, I'd never heard anything like it.

"I remember Sid Faulkner was a Laidley prop who got suspended for biting a bloke's ear off. There were some colourful characters that made me think rugby league was the place to be. The hardness of the first grade guys in Laidley was something I found appealing."

A major influence in toughening Ryan up as a youngster was his Irish/Italian father Gerald Giovanni Ryan.

Gerald was a lightweight Queensland golden gloves boxer in the 1950s and just missed out on the 1956 Melbourne Olympics.

"We did a lot of boxing as kids," Ryan recalls.

"I think it is a great grounding to be sat on your backside every now and then."

Ryan was coached by John Edyvean and Danny O'Brien when he was a junior at Laidley.

Edyvean, a former Ipswich Jets board member who owns taxis in Laidley, has a chuckle about how Ryan was what kids used to call "a hog" when he had the ball in his hands.

But some words of advice from South Sydney legend John Sattler at a representative carnival soon straightened him out.

"Peter was such a good footballer at club level that he could take on the opposition on his own, so he had trouble passing the ball at times," Edyvean grins.

"Ipswich played an under 14 carnival at Warwick and John Sattler was at the carnival because his son Scott was playing for the Gold Coast side. John had a chat to him about passing the ball, and he never looked back.

"Peter was a devastating tackler. He had no fear. One of the main things that got him to where he finished up in his career was his defence."

Readers looking for some easily accessible evidence of that need look no further than You Tube.

Knock in "Super League Grand Final Tries - 1997" and in the second half of the Broncos v Cronulla decider Brisbane are ahead 10-8 in the 54th minute. Darren Lockyer puts up a bomb and Ryan follows it through to pole-axe Sharks fullback David Peachey. The ball spills loose and Steve Renouf scores.

Storm coach Craig Bellamy once said Ryan was one of the best defenders he ever saw.

Ryan says that is because he relished that part of the game.

"The main thing I loved about defence was that I could contribute to the team with what I did," he says.

"My contribution might be to get a turnover from decent contact, slow the play the ball down with good contact or save a try by tackling a guy over the sideline. I didn't want to let anyone down.

"One of the coaches at Laidley that taught me how to tackle as a kid was Dan O'Brien. Dan was a bush boxer and a tough old bugger.

"Dan took his philosophies of boxing into his rugby league and tackling and I attribute a fair bit of my career to him.

"It was unusual how I got to the Broncos. I actually went there in 1989 straight out of boarding school and played for Wests Colts.

"My sister, Geraldine, worked on reception at the Travelodge in Brisbane and Wayne Bennett and the Queensland side stayed there during the Origin period.

"Geraldine, being forthright and up front as she is, fronted Wayne every time she saw him and went out of her way to make sure he knew she had a brother who she thought was a pretty special footballer.

"She pestered him through the whole Origin period and eventually he made contact with a family friend of ours from Laidley, John Edyvean, who was the president of the Ipswich Jets.

"He backed up what my sister had to say and I was on my way to the Broncos."

Ryan has recently left his job as defensive coach with the Cowboys and is taking a break from league involvement.

"We have our own mining supplies company here in Brisbane called PHC Supply Co and we export mining parts and machinery to Indonesia and PNG and we supply to Australian mines as well," he says.

But Laidley is still dear to his heart

"When I saw they had some trials I was over the moon and just wrapped for the town that they were getting games out there," he says.

"I haven't lived in Laidley since I was 15, but it was a great place to grow up."