Roosters young gun Victor Radley points to Steve Matai’s classic tackles as the inspiration for his own big hits
AS a teenager, Victor Radley spent every spare moment watching rugby league biggest hits on YouTube. Now the Roosters young gun is building his own repertoire of bone-rattling tackles.
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HIS career is only 15 NRL games old but young gun Victor Radley is already putting together an impressive dossier of bone-rattling tackles.
The 20-year old has revealed he spent any spare moment as a teenager watching some of rugby league biggest hits on YouTube.
But there was one player in particular that had Radley’s complete attention — Steve Matai.
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The Manly centre build a reputation for his ability to cut opposition players in half and Radley couldn’t get enough of it.
“I loved watching Steve Matai videos. He used to smash blokes. He was so good to watch,” he said.
“I remember at school, we’d have our laptops and we’d all just sit around and google ‘big hits’.”
Roosters hooker Jake Friend says the boom forward might in the infancy of his career but has displayed an edge and toughness that is well beyond his years.
“He’s a young guy but he has that NRL hardness already,” Friend said.
“You can see that in his defence. He’s just got a good technique.
“He can get right into the sweet spot. He’s been really good for us this year and he’s going to play plenty of more minutes for us.
“It won’t be long until he plants himself into one of those positions [rather than start on the bench].”
Radley didn’t always hit the ‘sweet spot’ with his tackles.
He admits he had a tendency of leading with his head but that it actually caused him more damage than what it did the other player.
He even remembers how as a child some of the parents of the children on the opposing team would ask his coach to tell Radley to not tackle so hard.
“I remember I had a tackling style where I used to lead with my head a bit and so at that young age some parents weren’t too impressed with it,” Radley said.
“Not knocking other kids out, I was knocking myself out.
“It got pretty rough. I used to wear headgear.
“When I was bit younger I didn’t have the best style but I had a few coaches that helped me fine tune it so it ended up being OK.”
It ended up being more than OK thanks to the guidance of former Roosters legend Adrian Lam, who coached him during his junior years at the Clovelly Crocodiles.
Radley credits Lam for not only helping improve his tackling style but his overall footy smarts.
“Adrian Lam was my club coach ever since I was eight years old,” he said.
“I had him from under eight all the way to under 17’s. He helped me a lot. I spent two nights a week with him every footy season for nine to 10 years.”
The two remain very close with Lam taking on a mentor type role. He continues to guide Radley as he navigates through the early stages of his top grade career.
“He’s done a hell of a lot for me and he still does,” he said.
“He and I still go and have coffees. He has done a lot to help me get to where I am today. Without him I think I would be a dumb football player.”
Radley says his side’s forward pack face one of their biggest challenges this season when they take on ladder-leaders Penrith on Friday night.
As expected, the excitable 20-year old is relishing the chance to take on a big and physical Panthers pack.
“That will be a tough game. They have a really strong side and an aggressive forward pack too,” he said.
“So it’s going to be really tough taking carries in the middle there too but hopefully we can muscle up and get into them. It should be enjoyable.”