Wallabies greats hail Mac, the Reds’ razor-sharp knife

Reds set to call up schoolboy player of the year to replace Isaac Lucas who terminated his contract with the franchise last week.

Mac Grealy playing for Downlands last year

Former World Rugby Player of the Year Garrick Morgan was being restrained, not wanting to overinflate the ability of Mac Grealy, the player who looks set to be brought into the Queensland Reds as one of the replacements for the three rebels who walked away from the side.

Still, it was hard. Very hard. Morgan clearly has high hopes for the 18-year-old fullback who looks set to be named on Monday to take over the spot previously held by utility back Isaac Lucas.

It is not a snap overnight judgment. Morgan has coached Grealy for three years, culminating with him captaining the First XV at Tim Horan’s old school, Downlands, in 2019. He was named the Queensland schoolboy player of the year, surpassing a number of outstanding players.

“I’m lucky to have coached him,” says Morgan, who in 1993 was voted World Player of the Year by the French sporting magazine L’Equipe, the forerunner to the World Rugby awards.

“I started in the under-15s with him, but he wasn’t the captain at the time. He’s the sort of kid that coaches would have said, ‘Get the ball to Mac and he’ll score’, so for me it was a case of getting Mac to learn the whole game and how to work with others and be a leader. He became our captain and he was outstanding. He grew into a really good leader.

“He steps off both feet, and he’s got power and speed. I don’t like putting too much pressure on a young lad. He has just turned 18. We have learnt in the past (the dangers of) fast-tracking these boys, but I think the difference with him is that he is a very intelligent boy, already a professional in the way he goes about things.

“The leaguies (the Tigers especially) were chasing him pretty heavily. But he has got a good head on his shoulders. He wants Australian rugby to be stronger and he wants to be part of that.”

Horan, who has also mentored Grealy since speaking to him at Morgan’s request when he was in Grade 11, described him as “one of the best schoolboy backs of the past five years”.

“Particularly in his awareness of space and his stepping ability,” Horan says. “And he is just a really level-headed kid, very measured.”

Grealy, who will play for University once the club season begins, trained with the Reds for the first time last week, reportedly carving them up with a step reminiscent of a young Quade Cooper.

He had been brought into the squad on Tuesday after it became known that the three Anthony ­Picone-managed players Lucas, Izack Rodda and Harry Hockings had refused to accept the 60 per cent average pay cuts negotiated between the Rugby Union Players’ Association and Rugby Australia and were stood down by the Reds. On Friday, the three players terminated their contracts. The Reds are also expected to give a senior contract to Ryan Smith, the Brothers second-rower who played for Brisbane City in last year’s National Rugby Championship. He turned out in the pre-season trial for the Reds when they beat the Waratahs at Dalby, although there are other players within the existing squad who can also cover the locking positions vacated by Rodda and Hockings.

Meanwhile, Rugby Australia will make a decision this week on a start date for Super Rugby, having been forced to delay because of uncertainty over whether the Sunwolves of Japan will be permitted to enter the country and the ongoing debate over who will pay for the Western Force’s participation — Rugby Australia, or Andrew Forrest. Either way, it is a decision RA chief executive Rob Clarke believes is badly needed.

“In all the discussions I am having with community, clubs, commercial partners and other stakeholders, everyone just wants to get back out there and play,” Clarke says.

“Sometimes when there is a void that we are going through, it gets filled with other noise … and the sooner we can get out and start playing the game, it gives people something positive to focus on and the media something positive to write about.”