Campo’s Corner: The legacy retiring Tigers legend Robbie Farah will leave behind

Robbie Farah and Benji Marshall are the two greatest players in the history of the Wests Tigers. As Farah announces his retirement, Campo’s Corner delves into the legacy he will leave behind.

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I’m sure you’ve seen Benji Marshall’s pass to Pat Richards 10,000 times, almost half of which were in the lead up to Marshall’s 300th game a few weeks ago.

I bet if you close your eyes you can see it now – Brett Hodgson marking Johnathan Thurston’s kick, finding Marshall (who hid on the wing in those days due to his already busted shoulders) who knifes through the kick chase, tries to beat Matt Bowen on the outside before flicking a pass to Richards.

The big winger, on a very crook ankle, goes the distance, taking the life of poor Rod Jensen along the way and giving the Tigers a 12-6 lead they never relinquished.

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Farah played his own part in the grand final victory.

It’s the indelible image of an indelible team, possibly the most beloved of the 21st century, the perfect moment that represents what the 2005 Tigers were about and how they played the game, encapsulated by their most famous and adored player.

Marshall will hear about that pass for all his born days and it will be played and replayed for as long as this sport lives.

Robbie Farah had a moment in that grand final as well, and it’s just as important to the winning of the match. Marshall’s run and pass were just before halftime – four minutes after the resumption, Farah darts across field 10 metres out from the North Queensland line, shows the ball to Todd Payten before Anthony Laffranchi charges onto an inside pass and scores next to the posts.

It is a forgotten moment in the match. You might not have seen it in years if it wasn’t getting a run in the news reports announcing Farah’s retirement. It has none of the weirdness of the Bryce Gibbs try, or the aforementioned joyous explosion of Marshall and Richards, or the symbolism of Daniel Fitzhenry’s four-pointer or the exclamation of Todd Payten’s final nail in the coffin.

Such relegation has often been Farah’s lot. He is comfortable in the spotlight, sometimes to the point of relishing it, but fate decreed he was rarely afforded that shine.

He and Marshall, the last men standing from 2005 and the two greatest players in the club’s history, will never escape the roles created for them in that championship season and which they settled into in the years that followed.

Marshall missed much of 2006-07.

People forget Marshall all but vanished in 2006-07, with a variety of shoulder injuries restricting him to 24 matches and he was fully fit in almost none of them – the latter season was perhaps Farah’s greatest as he took nearly all the creative load on his shoulders.

The Tigers never really replaced Scott Prince or Brett Hodgson so even when Marshall did return to form in 2008-09, he and Farah were a spine all their own with a rotating cast filling out the other spots.

These years, 2007 to 2013, were Farah’s best even if the Tigers only made the finals twice more. He was runner up at the Dally M’s twice, in 2007 and 2010, both by a single point. In the first of those years he tallied 35 votes, which would have been enough to win any other season from 2004 to 2018.

The 2007 season was perhaps Farah’s finest hour.

Farah was so different to Cameron Smith, the old rival he could never quite surpass. Both played a role of outsizes dominance unlike any other hookers in rugby league history to that point – they are the natural conclusion and idealised version of the converted halfback type of dummy half.

But that is where the similarities end. Smith takes his teams by the reigns and leads them around with a gentle hand. He only needs the light touch, such is his mastery. When Smith led with the bridle, Farah chose the whip, subsuming the team so they followed his way and no other – and woe betide anyone who tried to wrest control.

Farah’s teams could have been consumed by that dominance had he not learned to curb his more controlling urges. In rep football, for example, he struggled to coexist with the other playmakers in his initial stint in Origin in 2009. He had some good touches, especially on debut, but was overlooked for Game III and for the next two series to his fiercest on-field adversary, Michael Ennis.

Ennis and Farah staged many a memorable battle.

Nobody would doubt Ennis, a skilful player in his own right but better known as an attack dog, didn’t have the same ceiling as Farah. But Ennis was the more simplistic player, more apt to cede control. Once Farah learned how to temper his dominant instincts he became one of the Blues best players in a difficult era and from 2012 to 2016 he was rightly an automatic selection (although he played just eight Tests – Cameron Smith’s refusal to cede his jersey for a second restricting Farah to bench appearances).

That first Origin series on return marked some of the best football Farah ever played – in Game II he showed his iron, making over 60 tackles in a knock ‘em down match that on the surface didn’t suit him while his mother was in hospital. In Origin III, up at Suncorp Stadium, when the Blues needed points in the second half it was Farah who stood tallest as others shrank around him, setting up tries for Brett Stewart and Josh Morris with pinpoint kicks and going all he could to lead the Blues to victory against a Queensland colossus at their absolute apex.

Farah became one of the Blues best in a difficult era.

His departure from interstate football marked the beginning of the final stage of his career, where he lives more on cunning than anything else. Even now, at 35, he has one of the best kicking games of any hooker in the competition. His hands are still fast and he can still do good things around the ruck, even though the years of total domination are well gone.

It is fitting Farah and Marshall will be the last of the premiership players to leave the Tigers and their returns to the Tigers is one of rugby league’s true feel-good stories.

If the Tigers don’t make the finals, Farah last game will be at Leichhardt Oval, the same ground he made his debut. It has always been his place, even before he sank those beers on the scoreboard, and if that is the end it will be an emotional one.

Farah could finish his career at Leichhardt Oval. AAP Image/Dean Lewins.

A few Balmain boys might cry and rugby league will shake him by the hand and bid him good luck in the future.

It won’t be like that for Marshall. When Marshall retires he will be celebrated and mourned. Rugby league will hold him close, laughing and crying in equal measure, and never want to let go.

This isn’t necessarily Farah’s fault – there are few players in the games history that can capture the imagination like Marshall. This is no attempt to play them off against one another, as they have been so many times over the years. Marshall just inspires something in people Farah never has.

Farah was never afraid of fighting for what he thought was his and his many feuds – with Tim Sheens at the end, with Michael Potter and especially with Jason Taylor – were alluded to in his press conference on Tuesday.

From the sounds of things he has no regrets, and why would he? He’s finishing his career at the exact time and place he wanted to – he’s gotten exactly what he wanted.

COWBOYS AREN’T HOME ON THE RANGE

North Queensland played with plenty of spirit in their 16-14 loss to Cronulla last Thursday night, just as they did in the defeats to South Sydney and the win over the Roosters in the preceding fortnight. However, spirit is not enough when the whips start to crack and the Cowboys now face a steep climb to make the finals.

It would be the second year in a row Paul Green has failed to guide his talented roster to the finals and given much of the talent at his disposal simply playing with spirit and valiant losses are not good enough.

There are some extenuating circumstances – until Scott Drinkwater arrived North Queensland had not really replaced Ben Barba, Nene Macdonald was a well-chosen recruit before circumstances beyond the club’s control ruined any chance of seeing his best and Michael Morgan’s absence since Origin III is a real body blow.

North Queensland nearly scored a sorely-needed win on Thursday. Photo by Cameron Spencer/Getty Images.

But this is still a team with Jason Taumalolo, the best player in the world, and two more top line middle forwards in Jordan McLean and Josh McGuire. That alone is a better foundation than most and Green has failed to take advantage of it. Jake Clifford is a player of rare potential but had his confidence destroyed by Green’s refusal to play him in the early stages of the season.

We love John Asiata round these parts but he’s just not a long-term option in the halves. The decision to let Ethan Lowe walk was bizarre at the time and has only gotten more baffling – with due respect to Shane Wright, who has had some nice games this year, Lowe is the better option. Lowe was allowed to leave because the club wanted to start Coen Hess, who has stagnated badly over the last two seasons. Ditto for Jake Granville.

Should questions be asked of Paul Green? AAP Image/Michael Chambers.

Hess is now out in the centres because poor roster management decrees it to be and Green doesn’t really have a choice. The workmanlike backs of the 2015 premiership, far from dazzling but good enough to fill their role, just aren’t what this style of team need. They’re crying out for some speed, and have for several years, but apart from Drinkwater there’s nothing to talk about.

North Queensland can still make the finals and Morgan’s return will be a serious boost but the margin for error is almost zero. Green should not shoulder 100 per cent of the blame but given his control over the roster and the caliber of player he has had at his disposal these results will not do.

A VICTORY IN DEFEAT

Let’s not kid ourselves – even if the Dragons had hung on against the Rabbitohs last Friday night they probably wouldn’t make the finals. They’re in the position where they need results to go their way just about every week, which is another way of saying they need to hit several blackjacks in a row to finish even for the night.

But my heart broke for the poor old Saints after Campbell Graham’s controversial winner. South Sydney will have bigger wins and greater days to come this season but this victory, in that fashion, would have meant so much to the Dragons and their fans.

Gareth Widdop isn’t afraid. Picture by Brett Costello.

They’ve endured a truly rotten season, on and off the field, and when a club is looking up at the rest of the ladder and are stuck on a grim march to Round 25 wins like this can restore faith like nothing else. Late-season wins when the finals are gone are the lifeblood of the long-suffering fan.

There’s not a huge difference between finishing 12th and 14th but when Cameron McInnes makes the second effort on the charge down or a debutant scores a double or Gareth Widdop buries a penalty from the next suburb to put the team up it can mean everything. It’s hope for the future and a brief respite from the struggles of the present.

A popular cliche at this time of year is to say a team that can’t make the finals is playing for pride - when a team like that wins you can feel the truth in the well-worn adage.

GOLDEN HOMBRE

Is there anything more thrilling than when a big man gets into the clear and attempts an ill-advised dummy, or perhaps a chip kick?

Is there anything greater than when a large lad decides the time has come for him to show the world the ball skills he knows lurk deep within?

Is there anything that lifts the spirit more than a hefty fellow crashing across the stripe for his second NRL try in his 179th first grade match?

I say no, and to honour these big fellas each and every week of the year, which many have dubbed #BigManSeason, we hand out The Golden Hombre, named after Todd Payten, the biggest halfback God ever created.

With due respect to Jarrod Wallace collecting a charge down and running 40 metres against the Broncos and Morgan Boyle throwing the last pass for Joel Thompson’s try against Melbourne there can only be one winner and it’s Moses Leota.

Not only did Leota gallop 20 metres to score (his second try in as many weeks mind you) he did so off a pass from James Fisher-Harris, who’d collected a James Maloney chip kick. When two props combine there’s not a power in the universe who can stop them.

A GUY YOU SHOULD KNOW

Normally we save this section for up and coming players but English Test star Kallum Watkins made his NRL debut last week and if you need a reason to watch Gold Coast games for the rest of the year he is it.

The former Leeds skipper had some nice touches against the Broncos, especially impressing with his quick hands, and with a full pre-season under his belt he’s got as good a chance as any to break the streak of underwhelming English backs that have come to the NRL.

Watkins faces a tough task this weekend as he faces up Latrell Mitchell but the 28-year old is well equipped to deal with the enigmatic Rooster.