Rejected not dejected: Moment that made Dale Finucane
NSW debutant Dale Finucane has played five of the past seven grand finals, but his defining moment came with heartbreaking rejection as a 14-year-old.
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Dale Finucane leans forward in a lounge chair in the foyer of a Perth hotel and smiles.
“It’s funny,’’ the NSW Origin debutant says. “I can pinpoint the exact moment when I decided I wanted to be a professional rugby league player.’’
Was it watching NSW belt Queensland on TV as a boy?
Or chasing your first autograph?
“No, it was when I was 14,’’ Finucane says.
“It was during an under-15s carnival in Canberra where it was South Coast versus the Riverina.
“I was playing lock for the South Coast and all I had to do to get selected to play in the Combined High Schools tournament was play better than the lock from Riverina.
“I missed out and I was filthy. That was the determining moment that I wanted to try to play in the NRL.’’
Almost 3200km away from Optus Stadium, where Finucane’s Origin dream will be realised on Sunday, Mudgee Dragons captain-coach Jack Littlejohn will be icing his knees after tackling Oberon Tigers in a meeting of third versus fourth.
Littlejohn played five games for Manly in 2014, 16 for Wests Tigers in 2016-17 and 20 for Salford in England last year before taking a job at the Dragons and in the mines.
He is also the former under-15s Riverina lock-forward responsible for flicking Finucane’s switch.
“It’s funny, the fella who it was, was Jack Littlejohn,’’ Finucane says.
“I’ve never told him that I was filthy about missing out on that side.
“I just remember the disappointment, that all I had to beat was one player.
“Because of the disappointment of not being better than that one player at the time, it irked me and that was the moment that really motivated me and where I started to do a bit extra.’’
LISTEN! The crew try to get their heads around the Blues selection policy for Origin II and ask if it’s a version of The Simpsons’ “Homermobile”, plus Latrell Mitchell’s future and Matty goes to the movies.
Finucane took to road runs every second day, returning home for sit-ups on his bedroom floor with a DVD he had received on core strength on loop.
If he wasn’t playing footy he was doing anything to keep fit and be active, playing cricket, squash, tennis and even volleyball.
The 27-year-old Bega Roosters junior has taken the long route to Origin.
But just like the unrelenting style of his game, the journey appears to have shaped his long-game threshold.
If Origin is won in the 80th minute, watch for a Blues jersey with the name Finucane on the back to be in the final shot.
There’s a toughness to Finucane, born out of a far from smooth trajectory to the big time.
There’s hardened experience, too — largely from playing in five of the past seven grand finals — and it’s why NSW coach Brad Fittler wants to start the rookie Blue against Queensland instead of from the interchange bench.
Overlooked by the Canberra Raiders Harold Matthews squad, Finucane left Bega and moved to Menai to live with his agent as a teenager when he had signed his first contract with Canterbury.
On weekends, he would drive his red Daewoo back home to see family in Bega, carting a supply of bottled water on the front seat just in case the dodgy radiator blew.
“One time I sat on the side of the highway for six hours,’’ Finucane says.
Finucane impressed at the Dogs, winning the SG Ball player of the year, earning NSW under-18s selection, Junior Kangaroos selection in 2011 and his NRL debut in 2012.
Despite his clear promise and close bond formed from living in the Dogs’ share house with fellow Country boy and Canterbury captain Josh Jackson, Finucane had to leave Belmore for Melbourne the following year to show his true worth.
“It was hard and I don’t know whether it was the Dogs wanting to let me go as much as it was me looking for an opportunity,’’ Finucane says.
“There wasn’t really an opportunity for me to progress as a player with those guys in front of me.
“My strength was to be able to play bigger minutes and that’s what I wanted to offer the team.
“I’m forever grateful but it was purely for myself to get that starting role because I was behind guys like James Graham, Aiden Tolman, Greg Eastwood, Frank Pritchard and Josh Jackson.’’
It seemed that, despite praise from across the game for his work ethic, Finucane had fallen into Origin’s ‘out of sight, out of mind’ category at Melbourne.
But typically, he never gave up on the dream.
“I always felt that if I played consistently well, there was a chance I would get an opportunity,’’ Finucane says.
“I didn’t let it get me down. I just worked as hard as I could.’’