Circus Maximus: Luke Keary shows he's got the heart for gladiatorial arena, just ask Russ

Luke Keary is sick of talking about the night he took on Russell Crowe. His Roosters teammates, bless them, won't let him forget it.

It's become part of footy folklore: Keary's drunken blow-up with the Souths co-owner and Hollywood actor at Crowe's Nana Glen property in late 2015 during a bonding session that got out of hand.

Are you not entertained?: Luke Keary and Maximus Decimus Meridius.Credit: AAP/20th Century Fox

Keary stepped in to defend teammate Cameron McInnes, who Crowe was criticising; Crowe turned his sights on Keary; Keary turned on some of his senior teammates for not sticking up for them; Keary went at Crowe; Keary was soon trying to find a cab in the middle of nowhere at 2.30am. Good times.

"I'd like to think that's the person I am," Keary says, sounding a little weary talking about the incident again. "In any situation, if you're my mate and someone's doing something to you, I will step in. It's just who I am."

Luke Keary: "In any situation, if you're my mate and someone's doing something to you, I will step in."Credit: AAP

Um, has he seen the fight scenes from Gladiator, the movie in which Crowe played Maximus Decimus Meridius, crunching heads and slicing torsos and fending off the odd lion or two?

"Nah, never seen it," Keary laughs. "Someone bought it for me for Christmas at the Roosters last year. It was Kris Kringle so I don't know who it was. Honestly, I could not care less about it anymore. It's pretty funny. When I think back to all the things that happened at Souths, I don't hold a grudge and I would like to think Russell's the same. It never got that serious. It was two blokes … we were pissed. You know what it's like."

Yes. We do.

"The boys love it," he continues. "They all want to hear the actual story, so I put some salt and pepper on it sometimes, just to rev them up."

Keary can chuckle about it now because he's never been in a happier place, notwithstanding the bout of food poisoning that has hampered his preparation for Saturday night's preliminary final against the Cowboys at Allianz Stadium.

He almost went to the Dragons at the end of last year. Melbourne were keen, too. The Roosters swooped late and secured him. Now, it feels like he's been part of the team for years.

"He's an honest man," offers Roosters captain Boyd Cordner, an honest man himself. "He's a man's man. He doesn't bullshit and that's what you want from your half. He's a little competitor. Round one, he came out and scored two tries [against the Titans] and was man of the match. He then won three in a row. We knew we had a player on our hands then. He made a big statement at the start of the year."

Reputation is hard to shake in rugby league. Keary was considered a prickly character during his final couple of years at Redfern. The Roosters didn't know what to expect when he walked into the club last November. Keary didn't know either.

"The thing I noticed straight way is that everyone is so close to each other," he says. "It's like a little family. It's not what I expected."

Souths struggled with the success of their 2014 premiership. No player lost the spark as much as Keary. Come the end of the 2016 season, something had to give.

By his own admission, the Crowe scuffle wasn't the reason he left – but it played its part.

"The stuff with Russell did play a part but I don't think I was playing my best footy there," he says. "I can stand here and say that for sure. I was a long way off what I needed to be. They felt it and I felt it too. It was best for both of us that I had a fresh start. What happened at Souths was a Cinderella story – then it was a horror story. It was hard to be in the middle of it."

He packed up his gear, drove from one side of Anzac Parade to the other, and fitted in seamlessly. Prickly? Cheeky? Hard to work with? Not at all, says Roosters halfback Mitchell Pearce.

"It's like my reputation in the game, until people get to know me," Pearce says. "Lukey had all those dramas with Russell Crowe. Everyone was saying he was bit loose and all that stuff … I haven't found him to be like that at all. He's a humble guy. He's just honest."

The Roosters are one win away from a grand final even though they haven't put together their best football – yet. But Keary's combination with Pearce has been refreshing.

Coach Trent Robinson told Keary he would be defending on the left but when they had the ball he and Pearce would play a traditional halfback and five-eighth role. None of this left and right nonsense. At second receiver, with time and space because Pearce fearlessly passes at the line, Keary has been a revelation.

"Mitchell has changed my game," Keary says. "I wanted to embrace that role: a genuine second receiver role. At the start of the season, I didn't really see myself as that type of No.6 but it's been the best thing for me to be put in that situation. Robbo said, 'As soon as you get the ball you can do whatever you want'.

"Mitchell's opened up so much for me this year. When I play off his passing, he gives me a lot of time and a lot of room. I don't think people give him enough raps: he makes people around him better. I know he's copped a lot of flak with the way he plays and what he's done for NSW. He was really hurting after Origin this year but he never showed it to anyone. He never brought it to the club. He pulled me aside a few days after the third [Origin] game and he said, 'let's go win a comp'."

Cordner, the NSW captain, is adamant Keary should be in the mix for NSW next season.

"It's a big statement to make, to call someone an Origin player, but he's gone a long way this year to put himself in the frame."

Keary is not buying it.

"I definitely don't think I'm ready," he says. "I believe you need three to four good seasons of footy before you start sticking your hand up for that stuff. I've seen it every year for NSW, five or six different players in five or six different positions say they're ready for that role and ready to play. I don't want to do that.

"Cronk, Thurston … they all had to wait their time. You have to play consistently at NRL level before you can move in and dominate in that arena. I wouldn't want to go in there unless I was ready to make a mark. James Maloney deserves to be that No.6 for the next couple of years."

Keary won't be getting ahead of himself. He's been scarred by having success early in his career, only to see it fall apart.

Meanwhile, somewhere in Ireland, Crowe is watching from afar. Keary's right: he holds no grudges.

"I'm one of those old-fashioned Souths people – if you've played first grade in the red and green you're a Rabbitoh for life," Crowe says. "Glad that Luke is doing well and enjoying his football."