Sorry if already posted but just read this in the SMH 11/11/04:-
His hair is unkempt and rural and his personality is no more conventional, but second-rower Nathan Hindmarsh is proving to be the goods, writes Steve Mascord in Leeds.
Nathan Hindmarsh looks back blankly when asked how many times he has sat down for an extended interview. "I've got no idea what I've done, mate," he says.
Normally, this would be a poor start. Sportsmen usually fall into two categories: those patently conscious of the image they present to the public, and those who put their sprint training to best use when a notepad is produced.
But Hindmarsh - the 24-year-old Australian second-rower who has shone during the Tri-Nations tournament - thankfully fits neither classification.
His aim, he says, is to "just be myself, don't give a rat's what anyone's got to say, really; just play footy as best I can; and whatever happens happens".
And playing footy has served Hindmarsh well, his seemingly bottomless reservoir of energy and strength making him a well-paid pin-up with the too-often underperforming Parramatta.
Yet the real charms about him are the incongruities. In a country where copycat hairstyles range from David Beckham to Johnny Rotten, still no one has a mop like Hindmarsh, so unkempt and rural that it has become a fashion statement in itself. Then there are the baggy shorts - which can sometimes develop a builder's crack - and the unconstructed personality.
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AdvertisementAnd, as it turns out, Hindmarsh is a nonconformist just in the fact that he is here, sitting in the foyer of the Leeds Marriott. He needs surgery on his ankles, usually enough to get a player out of pesky end-of-season internationals - or for his club to insist upon it.
He decided to come, he says, because "I've had a good year personally and I'd missed plenty of tours before through injury, so I was keen to get back here and have a dig at it".
Had he been at home, Australia might still be trying to reach the Tri-Nations final.
Hindmarsh's chargedown of an Andy Farrell field goal attempt and chase to regain possession on November 13 put his side in position for Luke Rooney's last-minute match-winner against Great Britain.
"I was absolutely knackered," he says. "I was still out there with Shane Webcke and Jason Ryles who hadn't had a rest yet, and I was thinking what they'd be feeling. It just makes you keep going.
"They were doing twice as many hit-ups as me at that stage, and I think Webby does the same amount of tackles as me."
Captain Danny Buderus said afterwards his second-rower had a "big motor". Hindmarsh regularly plays 80 minutes for the Eels but says it's not always easy.
"It's different each week," he says. "A lot of people don't understand, including coaches, that some days you're not at your best, you do get tired.
"In Origin this year, I was playing the first 30 minutes of each half and coming on for the last 20, something like that.
"It's a team sport, mate. When you're rooted, you're rooted and you've got to come off."
And it's easy to get "rooted" in the NRL - in the sense Hindmarsh means it, of course.
"There are stages where you do just want to have a break for a couple of weeks or however long," he agrees. "But you think, this is a game you love playing, and I'm sure every other bloke would like to have your job."
Which brings us to Jamie Lyon, the Eels Test centre who walked out at the beginning of this season and is to make a comeback in 2005 in the unlikely location of the Merseyside glassmaking town of St Helens. As a country boy himself, Hindmarsh says he had sympathy for Lyon.
"I think they all did when he said that, coming from the bush he didn't really fit in the city," Hindmarsh says. "I can understand that. But now, I don't know how he's going to go over here.
"I think he'll find it tough, the fact it's so far away from home. If I know 'Killer', he does like to get home when he can."
Lyon's departure was damaging to Parramatta but Hindmarsh attributes their poor season to injuries suffered by key players and inconsistency.
"I think a lot of the pressure is on teams like the Roosters and the Bulldogs because they've been up there for the past couple of years," Hindmarsh says. "There was a lot of pressure on us after we lost the grand final in 2001, but since then I think a lot of it has died off."
Despite the woes, on August 28 he re-signed for three years. He has played 147 first-grade games for Parramatta, including 21 this year plus all three Origins.
The forward admits: "Before I signed, I just really wanted to know what the club was doing. When I saw who they recruited and who they kept, it was a pretty easy decision."
Timana Tahu, Glenn Morrison and Mark Riddell are those new faces. Socially, he knows Timana through Origin and Riddell from around the traps.
"Morrison's workload is enormous," Hindmarsh says. "Riddell, whether he plays at dummy half or the back row, is very explosive and he can create something from nothing. Timana ... people are going to have to watch him if he stays fit. He's electric, that bloke."
Riddell and Morrison, in particular, are known to be extroverts, but Hindmarsh laughs off any suggestion they will be at odds with the club's culture.
"It's good to be yourself," Hindmarsh says. "If Pig [Mark Riddell] wants to keep his hand up kicking goals, good luck to him. Hopefully we'll get a few more supporters, get a crowd thing going with him."
Nathan Hindmarsh, who clearly has no plans to try to be anyone else, says he hopes to keep playing in the NRL competition "until I'm 30 or 31".
"I want to finish on a good note like the Freddie Fittlers and Terry Lambs," he says.
And when it is all over, he will go back and have a season or five with the local team at Robertson, the Spuddies, "even if it means driving from Sydney".
With that, 186 centimetres and 107 kilograms wrapped in team-issue training gear, freckles and an unmistakable hairdo lumbers back to the lift.
Hindmarsh doesn't care what will come of our conversation. "As I said, I'm easy," he says. "Do what you want."
His hair is unkempt and rural and his personality is no more conventional, but second-rower Nathan Hindmarsh is proving to be the goods, writes Steve Mascord in Leeds.
Nathan Hindmarsh looks back blankly when asked how many times he has sat down for an extended interview. "I've got no idea what I've done, mate," he says.
Normally, this would be a poor start. Sportsmen usually fall into two categories: those patently conscious of the image they present to the public, and those who put their sprint training to best use when a notepad is produced.
But Hindmarsh - the 24-year-old Australian second-rower who has shone during the Tri-Nations tournament - thankfully fits neither classification.
His aim, he says, is to "just be myself, don't give a rat's what anyone's got to say, really; just play footy as best I can; and whatever happens happens".
And playing footy has served Hindmarsh well, his seemingly bottomless reservoir of energy and strength making him a well-paid pin-up with the too-often underperforming Parramatta.
Yet the real charms about him are the incongruities. In a country where copycat hairstyles range from David Beckham to Johnny Rotten, still no one has a mop like Hindmarsh, so unkempt and rural that it has become a fashion statement in itself. Then there are the baggy shorts - which can sometimes develop a builder's crack - and the unconstructed personality.
Advertisement
AdvertisementAnd, as it turns out, Hindmarsh is a nonconformist just in the fact that he is here, sitting in the foyer of the Leeds Marriott. He needs surgery on his ankles, usually enough to get a player out of pesky end-of-season internationals - or for his club to insist upon it.
He decided to come, he says, because "I've had a good year personally and I'd missed plenty of tours before through injury, so I was keen to get back here and have a dig at it".
Had he been at home, Australia might still be trying to reach the Tri-Nations final.
Hindmarsh's chargedown of an Andy Farrell field goal attempt and chase to regain possession on November 13 put his side in position for Luke Rooney's last-minute match-winner against Great Britain.
"I was absolutely knackered," he says. "I was still out there with Shane Webcke and Jason Ryles who hadn't had a rest yet, and I was thinking what they'd be feeling. It just makes you keep going.
"They were doing twice as many hit-ups as me at that stage, and I think Webby does the same amount of tackles as me."
Captain Danny Buderus said afterwards his second-rower had a "big motor". Hindmarsh regularly plays 80 minutes for the Eels but says it's not always easy.
"It's different each week," he says. "A lot of people don't understand, including coaches, that some days you're not at your best, you do get tired.
"In Origin this year, I was playing the first 30 minutes of each half and coming on for the last 20, something like that.
"It's a team sport, mate. When you're rooted, you're rooted and you've got to come off."
And it's easy to get "rooted" in the NRL - in the sense Hindmarsh means it, of course.
"There are stages where you do just want to have a break for a couple of weeks or however long," he agrees. "But you think, this is a game you love playing, and I'm sure every other bloke would like to have your job."
Which brings us to Jamie Lyon, the Eels Test centre who walked out at the beginning of this season and is to make a comeback in 2005 in the unlikely location of the Merseyside glassmaking town of St Helens. As a country boy himself, Hindmarsh says he had sympathy for Lyon.
"I think they all did when he said that, coming from the bush he didn't really fit in the city," Hindmarsh says. "I can understand that. But now, I don't know how he's going to go over here.
"I think he'll find it tough, the fact it's so far away from home. If I know 'Killer', he does like to get home when he can."
Lyon's departure was damaging to Parramatta but Hindmarsh attributes their poor season to injuries suffered by key players and inconsistency.
"I think a lot of the pressure is on teams like the Roosters and the Bulldogs because they've been up there for the past couple of years," Hindmarsh says. "There was a lot of pressure on us after we lost the grand final in 2001, but since then I think a lot of it has died off."
Despite the woes, on August 28 he re-signed for three years. He has played 147 first-grade games for Parramatta, including 21 this year plus all three Origins.
The forward admits: "Before I signed, I just really wanted to know what the club was doing. When I saw who they recruited and who they kept, it was a pretty easy decision."
Timana Tahu, Glenn Morrison and Mark Riddell are those new faces. Socially, he knows Timana through Origin and Riddell from around the traps.
"Morrison's workload is enormous," Hindmarsh says. "Riddell, whether he plays at dummy half or the back row, is very explosive and he can create something from nothing. Timana ... people are going to have to watch him if he stays fit. He's electric, that bloke."
Riddell and Morrison, in particular, are known to be extroverts, but Hindmarsh laughs off any suggestion they will be at odds with the club's culture.
"It's good to be yourself," Hindmarsh says. "If Pig [Mark Riddell] wants to keep his hand up kicking goals, good luck to him. Hopefully we'll get a few more supporters, get a crowd thing going with him."
Nathan Hindmarsh, who clearly has no plans to try to be anyone else, says he hopes to keep playing in the NRL competition "until I'm 30 or 31".
"I want to finish on a good note like the Freddie Fittlers and Terry Lambs," he says.
And when it is all over, he will go back and have a season or five with the local team at Robertson, the Spuddies, "even if it means driving from Sydney".
With that, 186 centimetres and 107 kilograms wrapped in team-issue training gear, freckles and an unmistakable hairdo lumbers back to the lift.
Hindmarsh doesn't care what will come of our conversation. "As I said, I'm easy," he says. "Do what you want."
