Hard Truth by Todd Carney & Tony Adams

Author:Todd Carney & Tony Adams
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Allen & Unwin
Published: 2019-07-02T16:00:00+00:00

7

GREEN AND GOLD

Mad Monday had a pleasant twist that year. Instead of getting blind drunk—which is the age old rugby league custom—I took it easy the day after the 2010 grand final, commiserating with the boys in our former teammate Daniel Conn’s apartment at Coogee.

We were all licking our wounds from the previous night and I was chatting with my former Raiders teammate Jarrod Croker, who had come up to Sydney to support me in the big game. Suddenly my phone rang and someone from the NRL—I was in such a daze I can’t even remember who it was—told me that I had been selected in the Australian team for the Four Nations tournament.

I couldn’t believe it. At first I thought it was someone playing a practical joke on me but then after a few minutes, I realised it was fair dinkum. Again, my joy was tinged with sadness—I knew how much it would have meant to Dad to see me in the green and gold, running out onto the field. But for the rest of my family, especially Mum, I was delighted, and I think she shed a tear or two when I told her the news.

We had a 25-man squad under Tim ‘Sheensy’ Sheens and he told me straight up at the start that I was only going to get one game. We had some great halves in Cooper Cronk, Darren Lockyer and Kurt Gidley so I understood and accepted that—one game for Australia is a dream come true for me.

I assumed I’d be playing against Papua New Guinea, a game we would win fairly easily, and again, that was fine by me. So you can imagine my shock when in the lead-up to the big game against New Zealand at the famous Eden Park in Auckland, Sheensy said to me, ‘This is it—are you ready?’ I think I just grunted and nodded my head as I came to terms with what Tim had just told me. It was going to be a daunting task facing the strong Kiwi team on home soil.

Putting on the green and gold jersey in the sheds before the game and then singing ‘Advance Australia Fair’ ranks as number two of the finest moments of my life—things I will never forget if I live to the age of 100. Stuff I can hopefully one day tell my grandkids.

We met a pretty hot Kiwi side who were all fired up on home soil playing in front of a capacity crowd and they really took the game to us. Their team had a host of NRL experience and proven match-winners like Benji Marshall, Issac Luke and my Roosters teammates Shaun Kenny-Dowall and Sam Perrett. I was alongside Cooper Cronk in the halves and what an amazing player he is. He controlled the whole game from start to finish—with a little help from his Storm teammate Cameron Smith—and the two of them dictated terms. I didn’t do a lot—I didn’t have to do a lot because these two guys ran the show, and I just took a back seat.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.