Benji Marshall’s rugby league journey a lesson for wayward players
Benji Marshall has been through as much as any NRL player could. But through the glory, injuries and rejection, he sacrificed and remained accountable. If only more players could follow his lead, writes Paul Kent.
Opinion
Don't miss out on the headlines from Opinion. Followed categories will be added to My News.
Let’s turn to Benji Marshall for the revival.
Not so many years ago Marshall was overweight and unwanted.
The Wests Tigers did not want him. The deal offered was just a breath above insult and so Marshall, not wanting to play for another NRL club against his Tigers, chose to play rugby union for Auckland.
It was presented as a challenge and a choice but it was the solution to a rejection.
The rugby experiment failed and so he found himself back in the NRL on a deal with St George Illawarra, aiming to rebuild.
His first game against his Tigers was his worst game of the season. He kept looking at the jerseys, unable to shake how odd it felt to see those colours as the opposition. He could not get his head into the game.
It ended badly at the Dragons when he knocked back a deal as part of the negotiations and the Dragons withdrew the deal, leaving him clubless.
It was some come down.
There was a time when every kid in the land wanted to be Benji Marshall. They all copied his sidestep. They saw the flick pass, the speed, and it was hard to argue with their logic.
Within a few years, though, he went from every kid wanting to be him to no club wanting him, even at discount price. It was all opinion.
Instead of moping Marshall accepted the reality of it. He went to the NRL and told them he had personal sponsors but was dry on offers. Basically, he was saying that he was about to put himself on the market for minimum wage and that the sponsors already in place were not part of some salary cap rort.
Finally Brisbane threw him a chance.
He was talking to Tigers coach Michael Maguire about it over the summer.
Nobody knew what he had left and nobody knew, given so much was built on brilliance, what else was there.
Nobody figured this was a man who had already come back from four shoulder reconstructions, long days filled with uncertainty and the boredom of rehabilitation. It takes discipline to overcome that.
It also takes tremendous self-awareness. Marshall realised where he was at and how he needed to change.
He taught himself to concentrate on the moment. Head down, work hard, get today’s job done. Let tomorrow take care of itself.
There was something of a revival at Brisbane. The old zip was gone and so he reinvented himself.
He found other ways to contribute. Other ways to move forward.
He found himself with a chance to return to Wests and, well, what else was he going to do? It’s funny how life works out.
“What struck me when I spoke to the boys,” Maguire says of Marshall and his teammate Robbie Farah, “was how much they wanted to leave something behind at the club because the club had given them so much.”
Maguire’s reputation arrived at Concord sometime before Maguire himself.
They would train hard and he would be tough. Ruthless, even.
The players were soon struck by how deliberate Maguire was in all they did. He knew what it took to rebuild clubs, what standards needed to be reached to be winners, and the Tigers saw they needed to raise it a level.
The players changed their ways, bought in. And leading the way was Benji Marshall.
After all that he had gone through, he understood the privilege.
Marshall led many of the hard training runs, which has surprised and pleased Maguire.
“He has let them know about it, too,” Maguire said.
Wherever you look, Marshall has distinguished himself.
The NRL has been having a tough time of it lately.
Enough that Marshall came out during the week with a simple tip for fellow players.
“Players will have to sacrifice their lives off the field in order to make it through a 10-year career,” he said.
“Young guys want to have beers with their mates but we can’t go to the pub anymore, we need to stay home.”
It is a sentiment, this need to recognise change is necessary, echoed elsewhere during the week by Canberra coach Ricky Stuart, Broncos chief executive Paul White and others, including NRL boss Todd Greenberg.
Millions of dollars are spent in rugby league on high performance centres and elite training programs designed to drive even the slightest improvement in performance.
Little is left untouched as teams search for the edge.
Yet if rugby league is so invested in finding competitive advantage on the training paddock, why not elsewhere in the game? Why are players left to risk potential suspension because anti-social, if not illegal, behaviour goes unchecked?
Players receive education, strong advice, and often worthy examples.
But in some ways it is a lip-service. Darker behaviours often get the don’t ask, don’t tell policy.
If the conversation does not change, how will the behaviour?
Penrith boss Phil Gould was confused and shocked by his players’ involvement in the recent scandals, which he spoke to in is weekly podcast.
“But also now,” he said, “it gives us an opportunity to lead the way in real education and where it needs to start, so that we can avoid this and so that the players can avoid putting themselves and the game in this position.”
At South Sydney, Wayne Bennett was glad the NRL was finally showing leadership. Bennett has not strayed from his usual thought, which is clear guidelines and strong decisions.
“No one is bigger than the game,” he said Thursday.
“We all know where we stand now, there are no grey areas … They will get the message when they start realising that the game is not going to have a place for them anymore.”
Role models wear an uneasy crown in sport.
They don’t ask for it, but they get it. They are not comfortable with it, but they can’t escape it.
And they can choose to not accept it, but they will still be held to it.
The smart ones get ahead of it. The others, they need their clubs to help them understand. That is the reality of professional sport.
Come this afternoon Marshall will pull on his jersey, Tiger over his heart, and walk to the dressing room door as teammates line up behind him.
All these years later, all those lessons learned, he will lead the Tigers out to a full crowd, captain of the team.
That moment itself will make all the setbacks, all the injury and doubt and the strength exhausted to change, worthwhile.
It shows the rest of us that it is possible. It shows his teammates and opponents the potential rewards for a little sacrifice and accountability.
These moments are full and pure. They bring meaning to it all.
Buzz’s top-50 NRL players for 2024: Four millionaires miss the cut
Phil Rothfield’s Top 50 NRL players for 2024 is littered with the game’s highest paid players, but four million-dollar men from the Rich 100 failed to make the cut. See the full Top 50 and have your say.
What Seibold’s revival says about ‘cursed’ Broncos coaching role
“It’s you not us’’ was the cry when Anthony Seibold was effectively shown the door in Brisbane. Maybe, ROBERT CRADDOCK writes, it was the Broncos all along.