‘It’s not his style’: Former coach rejects Titan Kevin Proctor’s biting allegation
Gold Coast Titans captain Kevin Proctor’s high school coach has leapt to his defence as a controversial “biting” incident places his Titans future under threat.
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Gold Coast Titans captain Kevin Proctor’s high school coach has leapt to his former student’s defence as a controversial “biting” incident against the Cronulla Sharks places his Titans future under threat.
Former Palm Beach Currumbin coach Rod Patison scouted Proctor as an under-15s talent and has kept in touch with the Titans star over the last 18 years.
He said Proctor had never been a dirty player and that biting his Kiwis international playmaker Shaun Johnson would have never crossed his mind.
“It’s not his style at all,” Patison said.
“It would surprise me that if Kevin was going to go after Shaun Johnson (on the field) that biting was something he’d need in his arsenal.
“That would be pretty low down in his thoughts or priorities if he was looking to give Johnson any extra treatment.
“His trademark has been suffocating through defensive skill, not foul play.
“That’s not his style. It doesn’t seem to add up to me.”
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Patison said Johnson’s downplaying of the incident after the match was the ultimate proof of whether foul play had occurred or not.
“There may have been contact with Kevin’s mouthguard but all Shaun wanted to do was praise him and his career (in his interview after the match), Patison said.
“What we should be dealing with his the people involved, not others’ perception of it.
“Shaun is really the authority in all of this.”
Johnson was emphatic in denying wrong-doing after the match.
“I don’t the see the value of taking it anything further than what’s happened today,” he said.
“Nothing happened. Let’s just leave it at that.
“We were both heated in the middle of the game. Whatever happened, happened. We’re still mates.
“He’s led with his actions his whole career. It doesn’t do Kevvy justice to speak about this.”
Earlier
Kevin Proctor will play his 250th NRL game on Saturday for a club based just 15 minutes north of where his rugby league journey began.
Plenty has changed since he walked in the gates of Palm Beach Currumbin State High School as a 15-year-old.
The battle scars of 12 NRL seasons with the Melbourne Storm and Gold Coast Titans are writ large across his face.
The nose of a heavyweight boxer and a baritone voice so gravelly Darren Lockyer and Tommy Raudonikis would flinch illustrate the damage Proctor has sustained.
Through it all, some things haven’t changed a bit.
The ‘Sideshow Bob’ haircut he rocked when raising the 2007 Arrive Alive Cup as PBC captain has lasted the distance, as has the relentless work ethic that caught the eye of former Storm recruiter Peter O’Sullivan.
Proctor was always a warrior, his high school coach Rod Patison said.
“The first day I saw him was at the South Coast trials,” he said.
“O’Sullivan asked me who was the best kid and we agreed on Kev Proctor in the under-15s.
“It turned out it was his first game of footy.”
Kiwi-born Proctor was raised in a rugby union family and had been days away from starting school at rugby nursery The Southport School until a sudden change to PBC set him on the path to the NRL.
“He was a top line schoolboy footballer,” Patison said.
“He played three years with us, and the Australian Schoolboys in 2006 and 2007.
“The trick to him was his two great assets; he was a great competitor, but the other thing people don’t realise is he worked so hard on his core skills.
“He made his trade in Melbourne as a defensive right-edge backrower but as an 18-year-old he played on the left and his trademark was those offloads and his exceptional line-running.
“Kevvy set the standard for backrowers at PBC for Ryan James, Shane Wright, Luke Garner and Keegan Hipgrave who modelled their game after him.
“The exciting thing is how Justin (Holbrook) now Justin is using him on the left we’re seeing those skills pop up again.”
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