Yea I played from about 6 to 18. I was fast and had a decent step, I played all over the place, everywhere except the halves but I probably played in the 2nd row the most and it and centre were my favourite positions. Occasionally played prop bug because I played a year up I was mainly shielded from that.
In my mid teens I had bad ankle break training barefoot. My ankle twisted all the way round at the joint and my toes were pointing the same way as my asshole. I was in hospital for a month, had. Heap of surgeries on it and had go walk on crutches for half a year. Tried to make a comeback when I could start running again but I had lost all my speed and step. Gave the game away for a few years.
Started playing again when I was 17. Knew I'd be a prop so I had my head wrapped around luckily I had a coach who was a local legend at prop by the name of Steve Kelly (I'd like to see people call Luke a useless dud around him lol) a great coach and even better man. I went ok, but struggled with the change. We had to go to Darwin every week to play and 8 hours on that bus was both hard and a great bonding chance. So I Just focused on doing the little things right. At the end of the year we played the west tigers under 18 squad. We were doing OK against them ( we did have a few overage ring ins) but Chris Lawrence tore us apart. Luke had a good game, tigers picked him up and that was the start of his career.
The next year we played A curtain raiser to a NRL trial in Alice springs. They had 8000 jammed into a small oval and all were baying for our blood. Was the dirtiest game I played in. We won after the siren to shut them all up. We almost won the Darwin comp that year losing the gf by 4 points. I missed a tackle that led to their first try and it still haunts me over a decade later.
No senior league in Katherine so switched to union because the local kiwi's and Seth effrikans have their shit organised. Was probably more suited to union anyway but have no love for the games and still don't know the rules, just luckily half the union players in Katherine don't know either. Continued my string of losing grand finals before I won one, then lost one by one point from a conversion after the siren. Then won one in golden point.
A few years after my last league game I was roped into a game for a Darwin team. Was my birthday so went up for my birthday in Darwin, hitched a lift with a mate, he told me they were short for b grade so got me a game. I done alright, scored my 1st try since my ankle break. After the game I was celebrating the try and my B-Day so I hit the rums hard. On my 8th can the a grade coach came upto to me and asked me if I wanted to play As as they were short. I done the best to sober up before kick off. I must have done something right as they asked me back the next week and even paid me a $100 for fuel and expenses so I can technically say I was a professional. Played a handful of games that year.
The next year Katherine finally had a senior team in the Darwin comp, trained all off season and in the 1st game I twisted my ankle. We had no reserves so I played the game out. Doctor said it was a sprain so after a few weeks I went back to training but I kept getting pain. Finally another doctor told me i'd done the main ligament in my ankle, it needed a year to recover and that I should give up football ( the second time I got that talk). I did go back to playing union but never played league again. I eventually had to remove myself from being around football as I couldn't help but put on the boots everytime I was near a game, but I kept RE injuring the ankle and it started affecting my daily life. I had to go cold turkey and not even watch local games which lead me to this forum and annoying you guys to help me cope
