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February 17, 2007
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Fate has been cruel, but South Sydney front-rower Scott Geddes is set on shaping his own destiny, writes Jamie Pandaram.
HEADS, Warriors. Tails, Souths. As Scott Geddes prepared to determine his playing future with a toss of a coin nearly six years ago, he stopped short.
"I just couldn't leave Sydney," the 25-year-old said. The coin remained untossed, Geddes fearing it would prompt a move to New Zealand and a lifestyle change he was not prepared for. So he signed with the Sydney team re-entering the NRL competition after a two-year absence, backed by a red-and-green army who longed for a return to the glory days, certain 2002 was the beginning of a new and victorious era.
That year, Souths took the wooden spoon and the Warriors played in the grand final. Geddes watched the decider, but his main focus was on the pile of coins on his table.
Since then, life has been mostly a sideline struggle for the hulking front-rower, who has missed nearly three years of top-level football in the past four seasons.
"It would be good to sit down at the end of the season and talk about how good it was, instead of how it went so bad," Geddes said. "Every player gets their injuries. I've just been unlucky with the time of year I've got mine. I get it in the first trial or the first game and miss the season; other blokes get it two weeks out from the finals and only miss a couple of games."
Geddes tore the anterior cruciate ligament in his right knee during the first trial game of the year in 2003's Charity Shield against St George Illawarra and missed the season. The next year, again in the Charity Shield, he ruptured a pectoral muscle and missed most of the season. In 2005, Geddes played 19 first-grade games, but his luck ran out again last year when he tore his other pec in the first NRL game of the season and watched from the sidelines.
But those who know him best, his parents, Ron and Kim, will only tell you about the "drive" in their son when his setbacks are mentioned.
"He would play football if he had only one leg, that's the drive he has got in him," said Ron Geddes, who runs a 200-acre farm in Moss Vale where the family has lived for generations. "He is just so determined, that is why he gets up and keeps going where other people would say, 'Bugger this', and stop."
Geddes was an outstanding talent from a young age, bringing home more trophies than the family cabinet could fit. His sister, Kylie, played basketball for NSW and younger brother Luke was also a handy league player. At times, the Geddes home resembled a pirate's chest.
Kim Geddes said it wasn't long after her eldest son had learnt to run that league was on his mind . "He used to say at the age of three, 'I'll get to play soon, won't I'. That was his aim at that age. We had a neighbour that played for the Moss Vale Dragons and we used to go to the park every weekend and watch them play. Since that age, it has just been his life."
Scott was helping to clear acres of Christmas trees on the farm by the time he was nine, but at 15 he was given the opportunity to clear a path to the top in the big smoke, and he moved to Sydney after being lured by traditional league heavyweight high school Patrician Brothers Fairfield. His classmates, in awe of the 16-year-old's bodybuilder physique, knew Geddes was destined for a future bigger than his frame.
One wintery evening in 1997, he played a full game for the NSW under-17s side in a State of Origin precursor at the Sydney Football Stadium, and was then driven to Parramatta Stadium at top speed to play for Pats in the Metropolitan Catholic Schools grand final against St Gregory's Campbelltown. Geddes won the man-of-the-match award in both games.
But as recent years have shown, the teenage dream is far removed from reality. "Being injured makes you realise how good it is to play footy," Geddes said.
And now, after biding his time for such a long time, Geddes is finally ready to live up to the hype that once had him marked as an Origin player in the making. "I just feel like this is going to be my year. I want to take my career to the next level - hopefully, I can do that in a more competitive team," he said. "This is what my life has been about.
"I always set my standards pretty high and push myself pretty hard if I want to do something. I usually don't stop until it is done." He is far from done with rugby league.
With his body rebuilt, Geddes prays he will also rebuild his first-grade career. That begins in round one on March 19, moments after the coin toss.
