Early bird Simpson unleashes frustration
BY ROBERT DILLON
STEVE Simpson revealed yesterday the gruelling regimen that inspired his emphatic return from injury against Parramatta on Monday night.
For the past three weeks, the Newcastle Knights enforcer has been rising before dawn to attend cardio fitness sessions boxing, cycling and pool work that are compulsory for all injured players.
The workouts kick off at 6am, and Simpson hits the road from his farm near Maitland about 45 minutes earlier.
"It's an early start," Simpson said. "It makes you a bit cranky."
A sleep-deprived Simpson found the ideal way to release the angst building within against the Eels at EnergyAustralia Stadium on Monday.
Unfortunately for Parramatta, they were simply in the wrong place at the wrong time.
In 80 minutes of mayhem, the 28-year-old international left three Parramatta players injured with powerful hit-ups, carried the ball 117 metres in attack, made 29 tackles and capped it all off with his first try of the season.
"He was just a wrecking ball," Knights coach Brian Smith said yesterday.
All this after Simpson had missed the three previous games with hip and ankle injuries and had been unable to run properly until a lone session on Saturday morning.
Even on Monday night, there was no way his ankle ligaments were 100 per cent healed. But in typical fashion, he gritted his teeth, played through the pain barrier, and terrorised the Eels with a display that is likely to leave them suffering recurring nightmares.
Simpson set the tone in the opening minutes when he charged full throttle at Parramatta's defence and prop Fuifui Moimoi raced out of the line like a guided missile.
It was a slight error in judgement on behalf of Moimoi, who spent several minutes on his back, seeing stars.
Two other Eels, Krisnan Inu and Taulima Tautai, were also left licking their wounds after attempting to tackle the flint-hard Novocastrian and bouncing off.
Knights skipper Danny Buderus almost felt sorry for the Eels. Almost.
"I just know when you try to tackle Simmo at training, it's awful," Buderus said.
"Even if we're only going at half-pace, with Simmo, he's all bones . . . when you go into tackle him you know you're going to get a bit of a bump.
"When he's running full-pelt at you, I'd hate to be standing in his road.
"He had a big impact with Fui, and also with Inu and Tautai. It wouldn't have been a pleasurable experience for them."
Buderus was not surprised that Simpson was able to dominate Parramatta's big-name pack, despite such limited preparation.
"The big thing is Simmo's motor," Buderus said.
"We get the same out of him whether he's been out for six weeks or has been playing back-to-back games.
"And last night I think there was a bit of pent-up frustration and he just let it all rip."
Smith described Simpson as one of those rare players capable of intimidating his opponents both with and without the ball.
Given that he has played only eight games this season, his return has given Newcastle a formidable new dimension as they home in on the NRL play-offs.
"The way he carried the ball and smashed blokes, he was awesome," Smith said.
"Every football player, forever and a day, love playing with blokes who can physically intimidate the opposition.
"For Simmo to come out and do what he did, it was enormous for the confidence of all our other guys."
Ominously for Newcastle's rivals over the final five weeks of the regular season, Simpson reckoned he had plenty of petrol left in the tank.
"I gained a lot of confidence out of our training session on Saturday and took it into the game last night, which was good," he said.
"I feel fresh as a daisy, actually. Obviously I haven't played too many games this year and this is the freshest I've been at this stage of the season for a long time.
"There's a few areas of my game that I think I can improve, and hopefully that will come with match fitness.
"I'm just looking forward to playing each week because they're all important games from here on in."
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