Parraren
Bench
- Messages
- 4,100
This ones from the NRL website
At Witt's end
21 April 2004
After battling injury, confidence problems and a younger brother who passed him by Steve Witt had every reason to think he would not make the NRL. A new life at the Knights has changed all that. Peter Badel reports.
You'd have forgiven Steve Witt for thinking he was never going to make first grade.
As a kid, he nearly had his leg cut off. A chronic back problem wiped him out of rugby league for 12 months. And then last season, as he approached his five-year anniversary rotting away in Parramatta's lower grades, he watched baby brother Michael leapfrog him into the NRL.
His self-belief in tatters, Witt had every reason to quit, and fate was gladly showing him the door.
But an off-season move to Newcastle, which paved the way for his belated first grade debut a fortnight ago, is as much about opportunity as therapy for a 21-year-old who could probably pen a manual on how to conquer adversity.
"It's felt like I've waited forever, five years is a long time in football," says Witt, who made his NRL debut against the Warriors in round five and went head-to-head with five-eighth legend Brad Fittler at EnergyAustralia Stadium last Sunday.
"A lot of times I thought I'd never get there. After so long in the lower grades, I'd lost my drive and my confidence. There's been times when Ive wanted to go back home to Toowoomba, but then I'd think: 'What job would suit me? What else could I seriously do?'"
Besides, Witt had already come too far and overcome too much. Rugby league was his life, even as a child who faced the terrifying prospect of losing his leg.
Today, Witt has hazy recollections of the incident. He remembers going paddock bashing with brother Michael on their Toowoomba property, and ending up in hospital as doctors fought to save his leg.
"I was nine years old," explains Witt.
"We were hooning around on our motorbikes and then I hit a fence. I went flying off the bike and landed in a ditch. Then I looked down and saw a huge gash in my leg, it was a mess. I just screamed and Michael I think he was only seven ran to call an ambulance.
"When I got to hospital, the doctors told my parents they doubted theyd be able to save my leg. The hole was so big they struggled to stitch it up, they put a screw in, and it was placed in a cast.
"Somehow my leg came good. I'm just so grateful they didn't cut it off.
The leg now poses no physical problems. But Witt's bitter-sweet tenure at the Eels, a club he never planned to leave, has added to the psychological scars.
Parramatta had bold plans for Witt. From the moment they plucked him from his hometown as a 16-year-old in 1999 and put a roof over his head in lodgings on the cusp of Parramatta Stadium, Witt was being groomed for a role at the scrumbase.
At 18, he was rated by Eels coach Brian Smith as having the best passing game at the club. At 19, he was destroying opponents in Premier League.
Then came the hurdles. He rose one morning with a back injury hed never previously experienced and for two years it flared intermittently, affecting his form and hampering his push towards first grade.
His deathknell at Parramatta sounded on May 2, 2003 the night younger brother Michael was pitchforked into the top grade by Smith.
For Steve, it was conclusive proof the Eels had other plans.
"By the end, I thought I wasn't going to get a chance at Parra," said Witt.
"To be fair, I was going stale there. It was getting repetitive, I felt I was doing the same things over and over again and not getting a chance in first grade."
For a year, the Knights had been tapping on his door. Witt had a link there in Robbie O'Davis, who grew up in Toowoomba and acted as Witt's big brother.
The former Queensland and Test fullback negotiated a lifeline and Witt couldn't be happier.
"I should have come here a year ago," said Witt, whose godparents are O'Davis' parents. "Compared to Parramatta, it's a lot more laidback, training is different and it just suits me better.
"The Parramatta style just wasn't for me. It's pretty strict there, but here it's a new start, there's new faces, new coaches, new surroundings and it's freshened me up."
Even the confidence is coming back.
"His talent is endless," says O'Davis.
"I know Steve well, he's like a brother to me, and I always thought he'd have one season in lower grades then walk straight into first grade.
"The setbacks shook him, they really affected his confidence. At Parra, he'd ring me up every second week and say: 'Rob, my back's no good, what's wrong with me?'
"But he's fitting in well here and his enthusiasm is back. The important thing is he's got a chance now."
A chance created ironically by the season-ending knee injury to Andrew Johns the other reason Witt joined the Knights.
"Joey's been awesome for me," says Witt. "Before he got injured, he'd ring me and Kurt (Gidley) up on our day off from training and say: 'C'mon, let's go down to the park'.
"We work on passing, kicking, footwork, just the three of us. He gives all sorts of tips, it's just so exciting to be learning from the best player in the world."
Coach Michael Hagan, however, is reluctant to over-burden Witt. For now, he's a work in progress.
"We just need Steve to work with Kurt," says Hagan.
"I'm glad he's here, he has a good range of skills and he gives us a bit of insurance in the halves.
"We've benefitted from the apprenticeship he served at Parramatta. There's no doubt he's ready for first grade."
Finally, after so many kicks to the guts, Steve Witt has the chance to prove it.
Brought to you by Big League
