Tokyo_Raider
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Interesting take here on why Carney was in reggies earlier in the year. Remember when everyone was screaming for the coach's head and questioning his selection decisions? Makes people look very uninformed now.
That aside, it's a really good read.
The evolution of Todd Carney
Chris Wilson
Saturday, 9 September 2006
Just minutes before he warms up for tonight's NRL final against the Bulldogs at Telstra Stadium, Canberra Raiders half Todd Carney will write his own commandments on the strapping-tape around his wrist.
'Shoulder in,' he'll start. Confidence begins with strong defence.
'Talk.' Communication will help steer the Raiders around the park.
'Support.' Put yourself in the right place, at the right time.
'Run.' Be aggressive, take the line on at every opportunity.
Carney saves the most important messages for the top and bottom of his list - 'must win' at the top, 'believe' at the bottom.
This is where you begin to see the contrast in Carney.
The 20-year-old can think so deeply about his game that he literally dreams of football the night before a big contest.
But he's also typical Generation Y, not a creature of habit but of habitual change. He changes hairstyles like mechanics change oil.
He's a kid with confidence and natural ability, a long pass as fluid as his kicks are deep. But he grew up playing to please his father and now, more than anything, he strives for the respect of his teammates. He has an almost naive honesty. But with a rogue streak like his, he might be better served to lie once in a while, or at least keep the truth to himself.
Carney got his driver's licence back less than two months ago. It was suspended, he offers, in the preseason for a low-level drink-driving offence.
The Raiders also dropped him to Premier League early this season for a separate off-field incident in his home town, Goulburn, where tall poppies can be treated much like the noxious purple weed, Paterson's Curse.
The club secretly put him on probation, good behaviour. His next offence, they warned, would carry a very heavy fine.
Although he hasn't always been responsible, Carney takes responsibility for that.
He admits he's had to grow up. Fast.
Until now he's spent his money on the latest clothes and fast cars. But it's with obvious pride he says he's paid the deposit on a new three-bedroom townhouse, adjacent to Raiders headquarters in Bruce, which will be built by January.
"I've still got to grow up more too I guess, next year being a senior person," he says.
On the eve of his first NRL finals series, Carney says he wants to be Canberra's dominant playmaker next year. He's been groomed for the job since he was 17.
He played four NRL games in his first season, 2004, 11 in his second season and 21 so far this year. There has been a succession plan.
Veteran Jason Smith, 34, known to teammates as the 'King', will leave the Raiders at season's end. Carney is crown prince.
"Smithy's been great, not just the things he's told me but the things I've taken off him," Carney says. "Just little things, how to read the game and slow the game up.
"Even though I think I've been playing reasonably good, I think people are still doubting me that I'm the person to take over from Smithy. That's what I'm excited about, taking on that challenge ... Hopefully I'm the player down the track that people are saying who's going to take over me."
Carney can relate to another young playmaker, Parramatta's Tim Smith, barely old enough to drive but put in charge of steering an NRL team around the park.
Smith was NRL Rookie of the Year last season, but has been the focus of off-field incidents in '06.
"I haven't had big things really," Carney says of his trouble. "You've got to feel for him [Smith] because he was going to quit the game, retire, for something so little.
"Everyone has form slumps and doubts themselves, if you don't you're not human."
Carney's audacious hairdos are a small sign he's more comfortable around his Raiders teammates. He can be himself. His elder sister Melinda is a hairdresser and he's a willing testdummy. It's been that way since she was an apprentice and Carney wanted to copy the Beckham Mohawk.
At 17 he quit school, after Year 11, to join the Raiders full-time squad in 2004.
He didn't want the first impression to be a cocky kid who'd been given a chairlift ride to the top, so he toned down his hair.
But, in accordance with rugby league initiation, senior players still teased him - for using gel. Carney admits he was daunted.
"Probably because it was my first year and they didn't really have the respect for me," Carney says. "Sometimes I felt, is it always going to be like this?"
Things have changed. In round 12 this year, Carney kicked the winning field goal in extra time against the Cowboys at North Queensland. He did it again in round 23, against the Tigers at Campbelltown.
Carney says he felt the change coming before that, after he'd returned to the top grade following his disciplinary demotion.
"I just thought then, I'm going to have to bite the bullet," Carney says.
He has worked hard on his kicking game with Raiders assistant coach Andrew McFadden. He's done extra defensive drills with former Raiders premiership player Dave Furner.
In the past, he's concentrated on being a ball-player or a running man. Now he's trying to combine his strengths in both areas, as he's done so successfully in junior grades.
"If I stuffed up I used to get down on myself a little bit," Carney explains. "But now with the confidence I've built with the players, if I stuff up I know I've got to do something to make up for it."
Carney says he's wanted to play for the Raiders since he was three. "And I don't want to leave the Raiders," he adds, bringing up the inspiring and emotional send off for long-serving stalwart Jason Croker, a man he's admired from day one.
They have similar backgrounds; Croker from Crookwell and Carney from Goulburn. Carney was four when he began playing league, his mother, Leanne, used to give him $5 to coax him out of the car.
His father, Daryl, was a bigger influence as he got older. At the time Carney felt pressured, now he feels thankful.
"There's been a few of my cousins from Goulburn who [played lower grades at the Raiders but] didn't make it due to their personal reasons," Carney says.
"After going through 15s and 16s at the Raiders winning the SG Ball grand final and that, I felt [my dad] stuck on my back. He was always making me do weights, watching videos and he was always hard on my game if I played bad. I think that was because he didn't want to see someone else fail. I owe a lot of that to him ... he helped me to hang in there and gave me the best shot."
Carney denies he's just playing for his family, which includes another older sister Krysten.
"It's sort of all for me," he says. "I'm the one doing the hard work and there's a lot of hard work to go."
Tonight's final is a sign of how far Carney has already come. He made his NRL debut against the Bulldogs, on June 19, 2004, just 17 days after his 18th birthday.
He recalls the match in detail. He was exhausted 10 minutes after coming off the bench. He kicked crossfield for winger Matt Gafa in the dying seconds to try and steal a late victory for the Raiders, but it was intercepted by opposition half Brent Sherwin and the Bulldogs held on to win by four.
"It didn't find the money so I had to live with it."
Carney hates losing, the kind of kid, he admits, who refused to take it out in backyard cricket.
"If you don't like winning you've got to have a good look at yourself I think."
Hence the written message 'must win' on his wrist tonight. The Raiders must win to remain in the finals.
Carney believes they can. 'Believe' will be the last thing he writes, his final thought before he runs on to Telstra Stadium. "If you've got belief in yourself, noone can stop you."
That aside, it's a really good read.
The evolution of Todd Carney
Chris Wilson
Saturday, 9 September 2006
Just minutes before he warms up for tonight's NRL final against the Bulldogs at Telstra Stadium, Canberra Raiders half Todd Carney will write his own commandments on the strapping-tape around his wrist.
'Shoulder in,' he'll start. Confidence begins with strong defence.
'Talk.' Communication will help steer the Raiders around the park.
'Support.' Put yourself in the right place, at the right time.
'Run.' Be aggressive, take the line on at every opportunity.
Carney saves the most important messages for the top and bottom of his list - 'must win' at the top, 'believe' at the bottom.
This is where you begin to see the contrast in Carney.
The 20-year-old can think so deeply about his game that he literally dreams of football the night before a big contest.
But he's also typical Generation Y, not a creature of habit but of habitual change. He changes hairstyles like mechanics change oil.
He's a kid with confidence and natural ability, a long pass as fluid as his kicks are deep. But he grew up playing to please his father and now, more than anything, he strives for the respect of his teammates. He has an almost naive honesty. But with a rogue streak like his, he might be better served to lie once in a while, or at least keep the truth to himself.
Carney got his driver's licence back less than two months ago. It was suspended, he offers, in the preseason for a low-level drink-driving offence.
The Raiders also dropped him to Premier League early this season for a separate off-field incident in his home town, Goulburn, where tall poppies can be treated much like the noxious purple weed, Paterson's Curse.
The club secretly put him on probation, good behaviour. His next offence, they warned, would carry a very heavy fine.
Although he hasn't always been responsible, Carney takes responsibility for that.
He admits he's had to grow up. Fast.
Until now he's spent his money on the latest clothes and fast cars. But it's with obvious pride he says he's paid the deposit on a new three-bedroom townhouse, adjacent to Raiders headquarters in Bruce, which will be built by January.
"I've still got to grow up more too I guess, next year being a senior person," he says.
On the eve of his first NRL finals series, Carney says he wants to be Canberra's dominant playmaker next year. He's been groomed for the job since he was 17.
He played four NRL games in his first season, 2004, 11 in his second season and 21 so far this year. There has been a succession plan.
Veteran Jason Smith, 34, known to teammates as the 'King', will leave the Raiders at season's end. Carney is crown prince.
"Smithy's been great, not just the things he's told me but the things I've taken off him," Carney says. "Just little things, how to read the game and slow the game up.
"Even though I think I've been playing reasonably good, I think people are still doubting me that I'm the person to take over from Smithy. That's what I'm excited about, taking on that challenge ... Hopefully I'm the player down the track that people are saying who's going to take over me."
Carney can relate to another young playmaker, Parramatta's Tim Smith, barely old enough to drive but put in charge of steering an NRL team around the park.
Smith was NRL Rookie of the Year last season, but has been the focus of off-field incidents in '06.
"I haven't had big things really," Carney says of his trouble. "You've got to feel for him [Smith] because he was going to quit the game, retire, for something so little.
"Everyone has form slumps and doubts themselves, if you don't you're not human."
Carney's audacious hairdos are a small sign he's more comfortable around his Raiders teammates. He can be himself. His elder sister Melinda is a hairdresser and he's a willing testdummy. It's been that way since she was an apprentice and Carney wanted to copy the Beckham Mohawk.
At 17 he quit school, after Year 11, to join the Raiders full-time squad in 2004.
He didn't want the first impression to be a cocky kid who'd been given a chairlift ride to the top, so he toned down his hair.
But, in accordance with rugby league initiation, senior players still teased him - for using gel. Carney admits he was daunted.
"Probably because it was my first year and they didn't really have the respect for me," Carney says. "Sometimes I felt, is it always going to be like this?"
Things have changed. In round 12 this year, Carney kicked the winning field goal in extra time against the Cowboys at North Queensland. He did it again in round 23, against the Tigers at Campbelltown.
Carney says he felt the change coming before that, after he'd returned to the top grade following his disciplinary demotion.
"I just thought then, I'm going to have to bite the bullet," Carney says.
He has worked hard on his kicking game with Raiders assistant coach Andrew McFadden. He's done extra defensive drills with former Raiders premiership player Dave Furner.
In the past, he's concentrated on being a ball-player or a running man. Now he's trying to combine his strengths in both areas, as he's done so successfully in junior grades.
"If I stuffed up I used to get down on myself a little bit," Carney explains. "But now with the confidence I've built with the players, if I stuff up I know I've got to do something to make up for it."
Carney says he's wanted to play for the Raiders since he was three. "And I don't want to leave the Raiders," he adds, bringing up the inspiring and emotional send off for long-serving stalwart Jason Croker, a man he's admired from day one.
They have similar backgrounds; Croker from Crookwell and Carney from Goulburn. Carney was four when he began playing league, his mother, Leanne, used to give him $5 to coax him out of the car.
His father, Daryl, was a bigger influence as he got older. At the time Carney felt pressured, now he feels thankful.
"There's been a few of my cousins from Goulburn who [played lower grades at the Raiders but] didn't make it due to their personal reasons," Carney says.
"After going through 15s and 16s at the Raiders winning the SG Ball grand final and that, I felt [my dad] stuck on my back. He was always making me do weights, watching videos and he was always hard on my game if I played bad. I think that was because he didn't want to see someone else fail. I owe a lot of that to him ... he helped me to hang in there and gave me the best shot."
Carney denies he's just playing for his family, which includes another older sister Krysten.
"It's sort of all for me," he says. "I'm the one doing the hard work and there's a lot of hard work to go."
Tonight's final is a sign of how far Carney has already come. He made his NRL debut against the Bulldogs, on June 19, 2004, just 17 days after his 18th birthday.
He recalls the match in detail. He was exhausted 10 minutes after coming off the bench. He kicked crossfield for winger Matt Gafa in the dying seconds to try and steal a late victory for the Raiders, but it was intercepted by opposition half Brent Sherwin and the Bulldogs held on to win by four.
"It didn't find the money so I had to live with it."
Carney hates losing, the kind of kid, he admits, who refused to take it out in backyard cricket.
"If you don't like winning you've got to have a good look at yourself I think."
Hence the written message 'must win' on his wrist tonight. The Raiders must win to remain in the finals.
Carney believes they can. 'Believe' will be the last thing he writes, his final thought before he runs on to Telstra Stadium. "If you've got belief in yourself, noone can stop you."
