Weekend Read: Secret is out on Jared Waerea-Hargreaves ahead of his 300th NRL game
He’s a brutal modern-day enforcer who’s racked up as many suspensions as he has enemies, but Brent Read can now reveal a little-known side of Sydney Rooster Jared Waerea-Hargreaves.
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The good folk at the Bonny Hills Beach Tavern on the NSW mid north coast couldn’t wait to pick up the phone a few weeks ago and give Noel ‘Crusher’ Cleal a call.
Apparently Jared Waerea-Hargreaves was in town and enjoying some local hospitality with his family. Grizzled old Jared, the man who has seemingly spent a lifetime ruffling feathers and upsetting opponents, wasted no time winning over the locals.
With that, the secret was out. One of the roughest and toughest dudes in NRL history, a man who will play his 299th game in first grade at 4 Pines Park on Sunday afternoon against the club that gave him a chance more than 15 years ago, also happens to be one of its nicest guys.
The sort of bloke, according to Cleal, who would stop to help an old lady across the street.
“Once he puts a footy jersey on, it is a whole different Jared Waerea-Hargreaves,” Cleal says.
Cleal would know. He was the man who discovered Waerea-Hargreaves as a teenager playing club rugby in Sydney for Northern Suburbs. At the time, having initially moved across the ditch to pursue a golf career, Waerea-Hargreaves was on the fast-track to being a Wallaby.
Ex-Wallaby Ben Darwin was an assistant coach at Norths back then and rugby union was desperate to hold onto him in the face of mounting rugby league interest.
“I’ve never seen anyone hit as hard as he can for a young buck,’’ Darwin said at the time.
“He hits like a freight train and I think that is very exciting. One thing we have to do is pull him back at training because he keeps wanting to knock everyone out.’’
Sounds like Jared.
As hard as rugby union tried, they were no match for the wily Cleal and a rugby league career was born. Waerea-Hargreaves arrived at Manly and did what he has always done – he ripped in like there was no tomorrow.
“I think the first off-season he and Josh Perry got physical,” Cleal said.
“I was talking to Des (Hasler) and I said, ‘we might have a live one here’.”
Manly didn’t have him for long. Waerea-Hargreaves featured in an all-star under-20s side alongside Kieran Foran and Daly Cherry-Evans, played a handful of games in first grade and then fell under the spell of the Roosters.
“The best story I have is that he turned up in a Commodore station wagon for training,” then-Manly under 20s coach David Penna said.
“He had painted it by hand with a roller and it had no back window – he had smashed it with a surfboard pretending he was a surfer.
“About four or five weeks later, he had signed with the Roosters and he turned up in a brand new Ford. So we knew where he was going.”
Cleal did his best. Manly offered him a decent wad of cash but they were blown out of the water.
“As an 18 or 19-year-old, you could tell he had a bit about him,” Cleal said.
“He was playing rugby union and as much as it is very similar in a lot of ways, it is a lot different. It was just his toughness and he really wasn’t intimidated by the older forwards that were playing in that game.
“We signed him and desperately wanted to keep him. We tried our best but the Roosters blew us out of the water. I think our offer was $65,000.
“Theirs was three or four times as much.”
In hindsight, it was one of the smartest investments the Roosters have made. Waerea-Hargreaves has gone on to play 292 games for the Roosters. Throw in his six at Manly and he is on the verge of smashing through the 300-game barrier.
It’s a remarkable feat for a bloke who has spent his entire career receiving punishment and returning it with interest.
He has been a monumental presence in the middle of the field for club and country and even now, at the age of 35, he is an intimidating figure who can put you in your place with an icy stare.
His impact on the Roosters has been profound. He is intelligent and thoughtful and the sad part is that he has done less and less media as his career has entered its twilight years.
Waerea-Hargreaves is always polite but he would rather focus on the two things that matter most to him – his family and the Roosters. He will leave the NRL at the end of the season for a stint in Super League and he will be missed, most of all by his teammates and the players he has gone to war beside.
Jared has been their protector and in some cases their savour. He has defended them on the field and been a shoulder to lean on off it.
“Jared is the first bloke you would pick every day,” Penna said.
“He was always destined for big things. He ran hard, he didn’t know any other way, he only had one switch and that was on.
“The way he plays on the football field is nothing like what he is off the field. Good kid, good person, a pleasure to coach.
“Even though the game has got quicker, he is out there playing for his teammates.”
In all the time covering this game, this columnist can never remember a bad word about Jared the person. He has walked a fine line on the field at times but rarely off it.
He still has this season to finish and he has a chance to end it with a premiership as part of a Roosters side that is among the hot tips to win the grand final.
Few would begrudge him a title to bring down the curtain on his NRL career given the way he is revered by teammates and opponents alike.
Cleal laughs.
“Except for the blokes he has clobbered.”
* * * * *
It went largely unnoticed last week but as the Spencer Leniu debate raged out of control, the NRL was forced to quietly step in and warn players about commenting on live judiciary matters. Not a moment too soon.
The public commentary around the Leniu case went too far and you can understand the Sydney Roosters’ frustration given they have now lost one of their major signings for the next eight matches.
As hard as it is to control the commentary around such an emotive issue, the NRL needs to make sure it doesn’t happen again. If it means handing out public warnings, they should do so. If it means slapping some players with fines, then hit them in the hip pocket.
Some commentators, this columnist among them, suggested it would have been hard for the judiciary panel to ignore the commotion. Those comments weren’t meant to question the integrity of chair Geoff Bellew and his fellow panel members Bob Lindner and Sean Hampstead.
Bellew is a highly-respected Supreme Court judge. His reputation speaks for itself and he handled a delicate situation with dignity and class. The comments were more a reflection of the amount of commentary around the Leniu case and the depth of the issue involved.
It dominated the news cycle for more than a week. Everyone, it seemed, had an opinion. In the end, the judiciary got it just about right. I could have lived with six weeks. Some like Manly forward Haumole Olakau’atu felt four weeks would have sufficed.
Others were clearly disappointed it wasn’t longer. The good news is it has been resolved and we can all move on. Let’s just hope the game has learned something out of it.
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Originally published as Weekend Read: Secret is out on Jared Waerea-Hargreaves ahead of his 300th NRL game
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