Page 9 - Rugby League World (February 2020)

THE QUICKFIRE Q & A
@lunt_d: If you had to pick your all-time 13 for
the Bulls who would you pick?
Micky Withers at fullback. Lesley Vainikolo and
Tevita Viakona on the wings with Shontayne Hape
and Paul Newlove in the centres. Henry would
definitely be in the halves, and I'd probably go for
myself there as well, because we had such a good
partnership when we played next to each other.
Then in the forwards I'd go for Jimmy Lowes,
Joe Vagana, Paul Anderson, Stuart Fielden, Jamie
Peacock and Graeme Bradley.
If that team had ever taken to the field together it
would have been fantastic and looking at the pack, I
probably wouldn't have minded playing at hooker.
Actually, I wouldn't, because facing that, the
opposition would always run at the little one, and that
would be me.
Man of Kent: Has anyone told you to ‘get off
the bloody pitch’ etc when you do your stuff
for the Beeb?
Never, that's just a remit of the fans to be honest.
The reason why we do that and get in and amongst
the players is that, unique from any other sport in this
country, we are given the access to it.
We want to spread the gospel of Rugby League,
and we are able to take our footage a lot closer than
anyone else and you get given a look under the covers.
I know people say we should just let the players
crack on, but I was a professional for 18 years and
if someone asked me a question, it didn't impact
on the way I played. The people that we talk to are
experienced players that are given the option to talk.
If they didn't feel comfortable doing it, we wouldn't
ask them.
The importance of it is that it is giving the
audience that we need to turn into Rugby League
fans an option to have a look at the athletes in their
own environment.
Some people don't like change but the response
from that wider audience is that they love it.
@amy_essexgal: What has been your career
highlight?
There is actually two.
First is the 1996 Challenge Cup Final, and I am
under no illusions, I know I made my career that day.
Three tries that day, the youngest captain to lead a
side out at Wembley and a Lance Todd trophy on
a losing side. That motivated me for the rest of my
career, because I never wanted to experience a loss
like that again.
The other was the 2001 Grand Final. That was the
first time I have ever played a complete 40 minutes
where everything just went right. Everyone turned
up, everyone did their job, everyone was on fire and
it was a seamless performance.
It was also the last time me and Henry played
together professionally so it was an emotional
occasion for that reason as well.
We had a large number of questions this month and Robbie gave us some interesting responses
so we couldn’t fit everything in here! We’ve put the rest of the Q & A up on our website.
Head over to www.totalrl.com and take a look.
SUBSCRIBE & SAVE TOTALRL.COM/SHOP
@championship_rl: What was your first rugby
memory?
I got the ball and remember running and running
and running before getting tackled. I got up to play
the ball and the referee told me I'd scored a try.
I was four year's old and playing Minis in Henry's
team in New Zealand. I remember going to the
Prizegiving thinking that I was going to get player
of the year for that one try and I was absolutely
devastated that I didn't - Henry got it, again.
I think I had played before that, so it wasn't a
debut try, but that's the first thing I really remember.
Gooleboy: When you took up office at Bradford
what was your first thoughts regarding the
state of the club?
If I'm honest it was a mess. People had good
intentions, but not necessarily the experience.
It was hugely challenging to be a part of that
and over the time I was there, between 2013 and
2016, people were suspicious there was something
underhand going on, but I never saw anything like
that or untoward.
At all sports clubs everyone is working towards
the same outcome - success. But ultimately
only one club out of however many are in the
competition are going to win and get that success.
How do you get success, you buy players. Players
cost money and if you get caught up in focussing
on the outcomes of games and come away from
what the club were really strong in, for us that was
match day experience, then you fall down and
you’re building your business model on unstable
foundations.
What I loved about Bradford in my time as a
player was that the business model was based on a
game being an awesome day out. Leeds Rhinos have
always done that well and Warrington are starting
to do it as well.
At Bradford we were getting our highest average
crowd in a year we finished fifth, which tells you
something. Success is not the thing that drives
audiences, it's the experience.
It's not just the Bulls that have got that wrong,
lots have and when I had the title of CEO, I was
more like a general manager and still had others
above me. The models they were building on were
based on success. They wanted to get out of the
Championship and they threw everything at that,
but the team underperformed against Wakefield in
the Million Pound Game. We just didn't have the
finance to run it how the owners wanted.
@robkenyon1: Why didn’t Chewbacca get a
medal at the end of Star Wars?
There could be a few reasons. Maybe it's racially
motivated, or perhaps he was allergic to the metal
used in the medal and it reacted with his fur.
Or there is another way of looking at it - maybe he
wears his medals on the inside.
ISSUE #466 RugbyLeague PAGE 9
WORLD