State of Origin 2016: Origin will help define Paul Gallen’s career

PAUL Gallen faces a legacy moment. The NSW skipper’s last Origin series is a chance for one of the game’s great warriors to shape how he will be remembered, writes RICHARD HINDS.

ATHLETES don’t read the newspapers. Athletes delete their social media accounts. Athletes don’t hear the crowd. Athletes don’t care what the world thinks about them.

Until they do.

We know just how deeply Paul Gallen cares about what the world thinks of him. His passionate — sometimes overblown — reaction to his punishment for taking a banned substance was revealing.

Gallen has one last chance to go out as an Origin victor.

Gallen feared he had been handed a short ban but also a two word life sentence: “Drug cheat’’.

That did not happen. Not really. The literal minded might apply the tag.

But the chaos and confusion of Cronulla’s dalliance with Steve Dank, and the loyalty of Gallen’s following, have ensured he is not thought of as he feared.

The way Ben Johnson, Marion Jones, Lance Armstrong and the other bywords for doping are considered.

Unusually it is Gallen’s bloody-minded reaction to the accusations that is remembered as much as the offence itself. How he ranted and raged against the idea his reputation would be destroyed.

There are some — particularly those in the media who covered the Cronulla story — who will tell you that episode did not bring out the best in Gallen. That his reaction was overblown, even intimidating.

But while I wouldn’t justify Gallen’s behaviour, I think I can understand it.

Here was a man who had rebuilt his career, his reputation and his self-esteem from the days when he had been labelled a thug and a grub. One who had worked hard to get his act together on and off the park. Then, after all those hard yards, he was felt he was being dragged back to a dark place.

You can make up your mind whose fault that was. But Gallen’s instinct was to fight and claw, not to negotiate or reason. An asset in the heat of battle, a millstone in this more delicate situation.

How Brisbane’s Courier-Mail used Gallen’s offences against him.

Now comes a very different legacy defining moment. Gallen’s last State of Origin series provides another opportunity for one of the game’s great warriors to shape the way he will be remembered.

Yes, Gallen could tackle like Mr Bean and make fewer metres than a snail with a strained hamstring in this series and his reputation as an Origin great is still assured. Regardless of the fact the Blues have won just one of the nine series the 34 year-old has played.

Oddly, Gallen’s reputation might be enhanced by both his team’s poor record and the calibre of the opposition. Some Queenslanders will be considered in the future as mere extras in a Maroons’ cast replete with all-time greats like Thurston, Smith, Cronk and Slater. Gallen will be celebrated singularly for the heart and passion he displayed in some heroic but futile campaigns.

The ASADA case will forever hang over Gallen’s career.

As Gallen’s NSW teammate and soulmate Greg Bird puts it: “It’s about the performances you put in as well (as the results) and I think he can hold his head high. He did everything he could for NSW as a state and a team.’’

But War and Peace is 587,287 words long and wasn’t complete without a final full-stop. Regardless of what comes before, it is important to get the ending right.

It is tempting to believe Gallen will leave an exclamation mark on the chins of a few Queensland opponents. That this series will provide one last free swing and he will unleash hell on his long-time tormentors.

Gallen and Laurie Daley know what Origin means and requires.

But given the new-age sensitivities of the refereeing, and the importance of a prompt return to league-leading Cronulla, Gallen will have to temper fury with focus — something a relatively short man with an enormous heart has achieved so many times.

Then comes Gallen’s next legacy-defining event — the Sharks finals push. A NSW series win and a Sharks premiership is the Hollywood ending not even the most audacious scriptwriter could imagine.

But whatever transpires, you can be sure Gallen will work feverishly to leave a lasting impression. As we already know, this athlete cares deeply about what the world thinks.