Jeremy Marshall-King knows brother Benji casts a long shadow but the Bulldogs star is making his own way in the 2018 NRL season
BEING the young brother of a game great can be a heavy burden growing up — especially if you think you have a better sidestep. Forget comparisons, Jeremy Marshall-King is very much making his own way at the Bulldogs.
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PRACTISE the Benji Step?
Nup, Jeremy Marshall-King never did. As a Whakatane schoolboy in country New Zealand, unable to recall even one single day — in his backyard, a backstreet, even at the back end of some junior league blowout — where he bounced up and into big brother’s signature sidestep.
“But for me,” Marshall-King shrugs, “it wasn’t a big deal.”
Wasn’t a big deal? C’mon, Jezza. The Benji Step wasn’t simply a thing back when you were 10.
It was the thing. Rugby league’s hottest phenomenon even as Jen Hawkins worked sidelines.
More than defying physics, the Benji Step was a premiership winner. A turnstile spinner.
So incredible, kids were giving up on Joey’s Banana Kick to perfect it. “Oh, I knew everyone wanted to be my brother,” Marshall-King says. “The Benji Step, the flick passes, all that stuff.
“But back then, I had my own sidestep, too. One I sorta thought was better than his.”
So what happens that day you finally realise, well ... it isn’t?
For when your brother becomes the type of famous that requires only one name — like, say, Bono, or Prince — what does it do for you? Your confidence? And that sidestep you reckoned was the duck’s nuts?
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Indeed, speaking now with League Central after a ballwork session with Canterbury-Bankstown, Marshall-King is revealing himself to be a softly spoken, humble fella — by his own admission, “the shyest bloke there is” — who pushes through our interview with a mix of short sentences and long pauses.
Like every word uttered is costing him cash.
And still, he reveals enough. Like confidence being hard to come by. Or game-day nerves biting hard.
Even confesses to having no Twitter account because “I like to keep my life private”.
So exactly how much of this, we wonder aloud, is due to being the little brother of Benjamin Quentin Marshall?
For in League Land, this is no small thing. Especially with today’s insatiable appetite for comparing players, Immortals, brothers, all of it.
And, sure, like the Morris twins, some siblings are impossible to split. Think the Trbojevics at Manly. Or Gidleys up Newcastle way.
And good luck anyone knowing which of those Sorensen boys caused more mayhem.
But arriving more than a decade after The Benji Era? How easy can that be on a kid?
“Growing up, people were always approaching me about it,” JMK recalls. “Saying ‘oh, you’re Benji’s little brother, are you gunna be better than him?’.
“It happened a lot.
“Being young, I didn’t care too much. I would just tell them only time would tell ...”
And now that, aged 22, it has. “I know I won’t be the player Benji’s been,” he says. “And I’m comfortable with that.
“My brother’s a great player. World class. So I’ll just do my own thing and see where it goes.”
Importantly for Marshall-King, rugby league success has never required being the best footballer in your family. Just ask Matty Johns. Or Ian Hindmarsh.
Two men embodying a truth also shared by Chris Mortimer, Matt Geyer, even Wally Messenger, a 1914 Kangaroo.
And now, the brother of Benji.
This rising Belmore No. 6 who, only a few weeks back, was just another NRL wannabe living with his girlfriend’s parents while working demolition. Jackhammering floors. Throwing sledgehammers at walls. Destroying homes like his older sibling, at the same age, was demolishing international defences.
Still, this anonymous labourer did have a Wests Tigers contract. Albeit part-time. And only for this year.
But given Benji was signed on too, it was enough.
“Because playing together, it’s always been our dream,” says the utility who moved to Australia before his teens and rose up through the Tigers junior system.
“And with him coming back in 2018, we’d talked about it. Said how this could be the year.”
But then, Canterbury called.
“After re-signing with the Tigers, there was a cooling-off period of 10 days,” Marshall-King says. “And the Bulldogs, they called after two, maybe three.
“Offered me a full-time deal, until 2020.
“That’s when Benji said I should do whatever is best for me.”
Still, who wants to quit on a dream?
“Leaving my brother, it was really difficult,” Marshall-King admits. “Wasn’t a good feeling at all. But I had to do what was best for my own career.”
Which, put simply, is donning a No. 6 jersey all his own.
But Benji 2.0? Um, no.
For while he may have grown up trading Benji Tazos, wearing Kiwi training gear, even lapping ANZ Stadium after the Wests Tigers’ 2005 grand final victory, Marshall-King insists he never wanted to be his older sibling.
So who? “Jonah Lomu,” the 83kg playmaker says with a laugh. “As a kid, I was scrawny. Still am. But the way Lomu ran, bumping people off, he was my idol.”
OK, but if you could steal one thing from big brother — the flick pass, the vision, even that Benji Step — what would you choose?
“His confidence,” Marshall-King says. “As a kid, I wasn’t confident at all. And while I’m getting better now, I still have to work on things.
“Like meeting people, I’m not the best talker.
“Before games, get real nervous too. Butterflies. So that’s something I’m working on.”
Same deal his game.
Despite signing with Canterbury as a hooker, Marshall-King has suddenly been thrust into a halves jersey freed up by the departure of Josh Reynolds.
Better, he’s making it his own way.
This evening, it’s the Raiders in Canberra. Then next week, up against the Cowboys’ Thurston, Morgan & Co.
And surely, somewhere at home, a calendar already hangs encircled with that Round 12 showdown between Canterbury and Wests Tigers at ANZ Stadium?
“Ah, no,” Marshall-King says. “I’m trying not to think about that one.
“Having never played each other before, I’d expect it to be exciting, though. That, and some dirtiness in the tackles.”
Could finally bust out the Jeremy Step too, right?
“Ah, I’ll just do my best,” he says. “Because I know Benji will be doing his.
“I’m just so proud of my brother and everything he’s achieved. But, yeah ... I guess it would be nice to get one over him.”