State of Origin 2018: Meet Liz Steet, the NSW physiotherapist who has been through it all with the Blues
ON Sunday, she will line up for her 65th State of Origin match and has worked with the greatest players in rugby league history. You wouldn't recognise Liz Steet but she’s been through everything with NSW.
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SHE is short in stature but a giant in Origin.
Meet Liz Steet, the NSW Blues physiotherapist lining up for a remarkable 65th State of Origin match.
Steet has been involved in 22 Origin camps, more than anyone else in rugby league. Her magic fingers have worked on some of the greatest players in rugby league history.
And Steet will be in thick of things again on Sunday night, ensuring NSW players are ready for the ANZ Stadium blockbuster against Queensland.
Standing just 149cm, Steet is a legend among NSW staff.
Steet, 59, was drafted into the Blues camp way back in 1992 when few women were permitted into the dressing rooms.
She left the Blues in 2007 but returned in 2012 — and has been there since, mending and mingling with some of NSW’s great characters.
“Characters like Willie Mason, Laurie Daley, Ricky Stuart — he was always a character. Joey Johns — he kept me on my toes, ‘Mary’ (Paul McGregor) was always good value,” Steet said.
“There are some funny Tommy Raudonikis stories. I probably can’t repeat them in a newspaper.
“Everything with Tommy was off-the-cuff and you never knew where he was. A lot of talks were punctuated by other words … I can’t repeat them. I wasn’t really sure what was coming out but he always fired the boys up.
“The Cattledog call, all the boys took to that. Everyone was a bit loose in the older days.
“One of the real great characters was ‘Chief’ (Paul Harragon). We all loved ‘Chief’, he was fantastic.
“You can’t go past ‘Gus’ as a coach, especially back in those days. He is one of the great orators in this world. The messages he used to portray, they always stick in your head.
“Actually Freddie (Fittler) came out with a little saying the other one he always uses, and I said: ‘Ah, I know where that’s come from’. It was a Gus-ism.
“I would walk out of meetings with Gus and think: ‘Hell, I’m ready to play’. He was just so good at that, the psychological game he would play.’’
Aside from NSW, Steet has been physio with the Kangaroos, Souths, Sydney Roosters, St George Illawarra, City, Country, Indigenous All Stars and the Australian women’s water polo team, which contested the 2012 Olympics.
Early on, she also worked with Gordon rugby union and North Shore Australian Rules.
Her time with NSW is the pinnacle.
“’Joey’ (Andrew Johns) is a legend. Laurie Daley, Freddie Fittler, without a doubt. ‘Lazo’ (Glenn Lazarus) was amazing. He used to play 80 minutes in an Origin.
Danny Buderus, he was fantastic, Bradley Clyde,” she said.
“’Sirro’ (Paul Sironen) was a legend through the camps too. He worked his butt off. ‘Clydey’ was amazing but I felt like I ruled him out more times than I put him in.”
Steet will be there 24/7 for any NSW player with a niggling injury.
She has special medical rooms set aside at the team hotel in Coogee and will also be at every training session.
“I have been lucky, particularly as a female. I think that is what’s most amazing. It has been a good journey,” she said.
“I am really honoured that I have been able to mix with some amazing footballers; to get more insight about them as people more than anything else.
“And I’ve probably got to thank Gus for me being here. He got me to the Roosters, I was previously at Souths. I came into Origin through Gus and managed to survive a few coaches, which was a surprise.
“It was nice to be asked back again this year. I thought I was done after Laurie so I was honoured and surprised that Freddie asked me come back again, it was lovely.
Asked about being a woman in a man’s domain, Steet said: “Certainly a female physio in the dressing room was totally different back then.
“I’d like to think, particularly for the girls out there, that I’ve had some sort of influence; that it’s OK to have a girl in-and-around a team. And that their job is equally important as the men.”
Steet works at the South Sydney Sports Medicine Practice in Kensington.