Benji Marshall opens up on his career, current NRL shutdown crisis

Benji Marshall has experienced the highs and lows of an NRL career and has some advice for players amid impending pay cuts with the 2020 season suspended.

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Benji Marshall has played in the NRL competition for half his life and has morphed from a young free spirit into one of the games most respected elders.

As the code went into lockdown due to the coronavirus last week, the Wests Tigers skipper and Fox League panellist spoke about life behind closed doors, how players must adjust to a new world, how he survived as a little man in a land of the giants and how he used to sidestep his way along crowded pavements to prepare himself for his football dream.

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Benji Marshall is captaining the Wests Tigers in his 18th season in the NRL. Picture: NRL Photos.

Q. How are your emotions our word virus-tainted world?

A. This will sound funny but I actually feel grateful I am playing rugby league for a living. The reality for so much of the rest of the country is no work at all. I have family here from New Zealand who have lost their jobs and because they are not Australian citizens they cannot get any compensation at Centrelink. I have a lot of friends who are doing it tough so I feel very lucky.

Q. So some of your family are struggling?

A. Well it gives you perspective. I know we are the NRL but we are not immune to what the rest of the world goes through. We are going to suffer but it is nothing compared to what is happening to the rest of the country. I’m lucky. Honestly.

Q. Pay cuts obviously lie ahead for the players but I guess the rough and tumble world of league has conditioned you for that like the year you came to Brisbane on $100,000?

A. It was actually $85,000.

Q. Really. How does a pay cut like that influence your spending habits?

A. I went from being on $500,000 plus to $85,000 so it was a big change. I am really lucky in that my wife is budget orientated. We were ok because the cost of living was cheaper. But the big thing was I wanted to play so badly.

Benji Marshall took a paycut to join the Broncos in 2017 to play under Wayne Bennett. Picture: AAP.

Q. So did you change your lifestyle?

A. Yes. We cut back on everything. We changed our phone plans. We didn’t have Foxtel. We lived in a place which was smaller than what we were used to. All those things came into play. You do what you have to if you want to keep playing footy and it is going to be no different to now. This year, the reality is we are lucky … we have already been paid almost 40% of our salary for the year.

Q. You adjusted to pay cuts but do you think most players will this season?

A. There is no choice. They simply have to. For me it is about survival during this time. We just have to remember we will still get something. There is plenty of people getting nothing. Do what you can. Go to your bank and maybe defer your loan for six months.

Q. Do you see rugby league changing as a result of this crisis?

A. I am an optimistic person and I think the game will be stronger and come back bigger. How long that takes might be the issue. I just feel the game will learn a lot of lessons in terms of spending and what we do with our money in terms of a game. Also I feel watching on the weekend with teams playing before no crowds just wasn’t right mate. Sport is not sport without people watching. I think crowd attendances might go up as people realise what they were missing.

Q. It’s amazing that you have played half of your life in the NRL. How does that feel, particularly as a small player targeting in a land of giants?

A. It’s 18 years this year. I have had five shoulder reconstructions. I am really proud. If you had asked me after my first shoulder operation whether I would reach 300 games I would have said no way. But I tell you what. It did not come off the back of hoping. I had to do a lot of hard work. There were a lot of dark times and hard times. I will be honest, I lost my for a little bit because I did not realise what I needed to get back. Sometimes you have to go through the hard times to get a bit of gratitude and perspective. I went through all of it.

Q. You sort of invented that aerial sidestep which is your mark on the game. Where did you get it from?

A. I grew up playing touch and there were a couple of guys growing up who had these massive jump steps and I just wanted to do it. I practised every day. I’m not joking, I put on cones, hats and poles. I would walk through a busy street in town and sidestep people. When you are a smaller bloke you have to find ways to beat the bigger blokes.

Q. And during your era the game became a game for bigger men, didn’t it?

A. I actually did my shoulder for the first time tackling Paul Rauhihi who was 145kgs and I was 76kg. He was double my weight.

Q. You have done very well in the last quarter of your career because when you came to Brisbane in 2016 there was a sense that was the last chance saloon, wasn’t it?

A. It was. I will credit a lot of what is happening now to my stint in Brisbane because Wayne Bennett helped me to find my love of the game again and not to treat it so seriously. He would say “where is that Benji who used to joke around in the dressing room … you’ve become so serious … go back to what you were.’’ It was so true. The game had become so serious for me. I still thank Wayne for that all the time.

Q. At what point did you lose your way?

A. When I went to rugby union and when I had success early I thought it was going to be easier than it was. I felt I could there by training normally and not at my hardest. There were things I had to learn. I feel I am the best version of myself now because of all the ups and downs I had.

Benji Benji Marshall in action during his brief stint for the Auckland Blues in 2014. Picture: Brett Costello

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Q. You finished school at Keebra Park High School on the Gold Coast. What are your memories of that?

A. I loved it. I think the Gold Coast is one of the best places you could raise your children I reckon. The beaches, the schooling. I just really loved it. Coming from a small town in New Zealand it was a big lifestyle change for me and gave me every opportunity to do what I’m doing now. If I had not gone to Keebra Park I would not be where I am today.

Q. Anthony Milford seems to be improving after being relieved the burden of being in the leadership group at the Broncos. What do you make of him?

A. Anthony is one of the most freakish talents I have ever seen. When you are playing in the halves you need to control the game but that is just not his game and he just has to plays what he sees.

During my time in Brisbane he was a freak.