Best Who Never Made It - Part 3: NRL’s new era arrived too late for Rob Apanui
The new six-again rule is rewarding players who can out-think and outwork the monsters who previously ruled the middle. A new era is coming but it arrives too late for one Burleigh and Tugun legend.
NRL
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BEST WHO NEVER MADE IT SERIES
■ Part One:‘Titans could really use him now’
■ Part Two:Hard-partying Willie Mason clone who ran like the wind
NRL teams are increasingly turning to footballers with the brains to match their brawn as the game’s evolution away from an arm wrestle picks up speed.
The new six-again rule, penalising teams who infringe in the tackle and ruck, is sure to accelerate that development, placing enormous value on the players who can out-think and outwork the monsters who previously ruled the middle.
A new era is coming but it arrives too late for Burleigh and Tugun stalwart Rob Apanui.
The second-rower played 135 Queensland Cup matches over eight years, winning the state title in 2004, but his NRL call-up never came.
Former Burleigh assistant and current A Grade coach Matt Foster said Apanui’s cerebral play would have made him a natural fit in today’s NRL.
“You need more than just smarts, but the players who make it to that level today are able to identify areas of the field and people they can work over,” he said.
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“You don’t just catch, crash and bash, that doesn’t happen anymore.
“You need someone who knows how to run and where to run and when to inject himself into a game.
“Robbie’s smarts would have transcended across the Queensland Cup-NRL divide. He’d have been able to make the jump.”
Instead, Apanui’s next step after the Bears was to the Tugun Seahawks, where he featured in six-straight Grand Finals between 2010 and 2016, captaining them to a premiership in 2016 aged 36.
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“He was the biggest contributing influence on them winning the comp in 2016,” Foster said.
“He had a very vocal effect on people around him, taking people with him and lifting them for the big day.
“As a coach you see the little things he does in contact within the tackle, where he buys that extra few seconds.
“Once he was in a tackle he was the best I’ve seen in subtly forcing the ball out when the referee couldn’t see.
“Certainly the defensive element and speed of the play-the-ball were his fortes, so linking with the type of team like the Storm would have been a smart link.”
Now 40, time will tell if Apanui’s fifth consecutive attempt at hanging up the boots will finally stick.
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