Blake Green‘s smarts and skill as a ballplayer can make the Warriors challengers this season
I LOVE watching Blake Green play because I love his story. It’s a lesson in persistence and dedication — and the difference between footballers and athletes, writes MATTHEW JOHNS.
Opinion
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Give me a footballer over an athlete anytime. Athletes win races, footballers win matches.
In the age of giants, the game still belongs to the Smiths and the Thurstons.
And the Greens.
Blake Green, what a difference he’s already made at the Warriors.
If Blake was a racehorse, he wouldn’t be odds-on favourite, based on appearance.
Blake Green and Cameron Smith look as though they should be advising players on Super rather than out there competing …..and winning.
For them, the magic lies between the ears, not in the biceps.
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Last weekend Green’s tactical sense and leadership with the football didn’t just spark the Warriors, it liberated Shaun Johnson, with the Kiwi halfback free to float around the park, picking and choosing his moments.
I really enjoy watching Blake Green play because I love his story. It’s a lesson in persistence and dedication.
Blake only ever wanted to be a footballer, since he was a kid he was obsessed with Rugby League.
He was a star at Westfield Sports High, captaining the Australian Schoolboys’ team in 2004, recognised as the best young playmaker coming through the ranks.
Success appeared a sure thing, it wasn’t.
Blake made his first grade debut for Parramatta in 2007 and a lot was expected, probably too much.
He struggled. He not only felt every set of eyes on him, he felt intimidated by his teammates and his opponents.
Blake was a rugby league fan and it never felt quite right being out on the pitch with his heroes.
The following year he moved to the Cronulla Sharks and while there were glimpses of talent, Green still couldn’t quite get traction.
In 2010, after two years in the Shire, he moved to the Dogs where he found some solid consistency, but also found himself in an underperforming team which finished 13th on the ladder.
Football just wasn’t working out how he had hoped.
So, he shrugged his shoulders, accepted his fate and pulled down the curtain on his NRL career, signing with English Super League’s Hull Kingston Rovers.
Hull Kingston Rovers have a history of transforming struggling Australian footballers.
In 1985 they signed a struggling young centre/backrower named Gavin Miller. Gavin had bounced around a few clubs since the late ‘70s before being released by the Roosters at the end of the 1984 season.
At Hull KR, Miller reinvented himself and returned to the Cronulla Sharks in 1986 as a genius, the greatest ballplayer I have ever seen.
English football agreed with Blake Green. There was less scrutiny, less pressure, he didn’t feel the weight of expectation, he was a success.
In 2013 he moved to English glamour club Wigan, where his football blossomed further.
In the 2013 Super League Grand Final Blake played one of his finest games, picking up Man of the Match after leading Wigan back from being 16-2 down, winning 30-16.
It was a performance, of not just great skill, but courage. After just three minutes Green copped a cheap shot that broke his eye-socket and rendered him unconscious.
Performances like that caught the attention of Craig Bellamy, who was on the lookout for a player to partner Cooper Cronk in the halves at Melbourne.
Bellamy offered Blake a second crack at an NRL career.
Green admits he was nervous, wondering whether the self doubt would resurface with the return of a high pressure environment. But at the Storm he learnt from Bellamy, that if you’re willing to work hard and discipline yourself to focus on the process of the task, not the outcome, you can expect success.
Success is what he’s been enjoying ever since.
Each year Green is getting better and becoming more and more valuable as the old fashioned footballer becomes a rarer commodity.
Manly will miss him enormously, last season he allowed Daly Cherry-Evans the kind of freedom Shaun Johnson is now enjoying.
As far as the Warriors prospects for 2018? You never know.
In 2017, with their big name signings, I expected them to challenge for a top-four finish, they were dreadful.
This year I had them in my bottom four — they’ll probably win it.