Anthony Watmough wants to cash in on his stellar form and help set his family up for life, writes Will Swanton.
Anthony Watmough has a burning ambition
to be recognised as the greatest rugby league forward in the world. And he has a confession
his days at Manly might be numbered.
The Test back-rower went off like Krakatoa during the State of Origin series and plans to keep spitting lava when the NRL finals erupt tonight with Manly against Melbourne at Etihad Stadium. Watmough, an irrepressible character whose extreme energy levels are only partly due to his self-confessed ''20 cans of Red Bull a day'' habit, was part psycho on match eve and part philosopher, bold enough to declare his career ambition to the
Herald while admitting he will leave the Sea Eagles for another club if the price is right.
Think twice about accusing him of a lack of loyalty. Watmough bruises and bleeds for his club on a weekly basis - ''I'll follow the Manly boys to war and they will follow me'' - but he also has two children from a past relationship, Claudia and Jake, to consider. Aged 26, his next contract will be the big one, the seven-figure, multi-year deal parking him and his clan on Easy Street for the rest of his days.
Asked if his driving force was to become the most feared and revered forward on the planet, Watmough replied: ''Definitely. It was a great honour when it was being mentioned after Origin. It gave me a lift. If I can go out there and play good footy, it will go a long way to hopefully cementing that mantle. I will always give it my all. I'd be kidding myself if I didn't.''
Watmough is off contract at the end of next season. Discussions are under way but complications are prevalent. Matt Orford, David Williams and Michael Robertson are yet to be confirmed as signings for next season while Watmough's partner in crime, fellow Test back-rower Glenn Stewart, is also a free agent in 2010 with Jamie Lyon, Josh Perry, Steve Matai and Kieran Foran. Only so many dollars are available so something or someone will have to give.
''I have a couple of kids to feed,'' Watmough said. ''If I can't start getting the runs on the board, I can't get them set up for the rest of their lives. You don't get long in football so hopefully I can get as much out of it as I can.
''If it [changing clubs] makes their life a lot easier, I'd be happy with that. I have a young family and a young girlfriend. If I can set them up - I'm 26 now so there's not long to go. I want to hopefully have enough money to retire and never work again. I just want to get that bit of stability there.
''I'm not at the back end of my career, but it's only a couple of years away. It [leaving Manly] is definitely something that's more realistic now, something I have to look at and look at seriously.
''In the end, it's a business. If the money is right and it's going to set the family up, it has to be considered. I would be kidding myself if I said I am going to stay at Manly for a couple of hundred thousand less because, realistically, that's not going to happen. Having said that, we're working hard with Manly and we want to get something done by the end of the year. Hopefully I can be signed up for the rest of my life here and be a one-club man.''
Watmough is stepping into a bar-room brawl against the Storm. Their coach Craig Bellamy will have worked overtime to plot Watmough's downfall, armed with an abundance of knowledge gleened from their Origin campaign together. Here's the deep irony. When Watmough is asked to nominate his turning point of this year, he pauses, grins then recalls the faith in him shown by Bellamy before his man-of-the-match performance in Origin III.
''When Craig Bellamy said to me before the third Origin, he said, 'You've had plenty of energy off the field, you've been a good bloke, I need you to take that energy on to the field', just hearing that from a bloke who is probably one of the smartest thinkers in the game, just knowing I could take that energy out there and make a difference, it gave me a massive lift,'' Watmough said. ''It's something I tried to bring back to Manly after Origin. Just to try to get involved as much as I can and lead the way. I've always been a bit hyper.
''As a kid I skateboarded, I surfed, I did everything. There wasn't a minute in the day I wasted. The boys get pretty jack of me energy-wise sometimes. I have about 20 Red Bulls a day.''
''Choc'' is tanned from a lifetime on the northern beaches, apparently where it's four degrees warmer than any other Sydney area at any given moment, but he turns pasty white at the thought of playing against Glenn Stewart should one of them sign with a different club. ''It would suck,'' he said. ''We've always fed off each other. When he played a good game, I knew I had to have a good game. When he did a good run, I knew I had to have a good run. It definitely makes me a better player having Glenn on the other side because I see how skilful he is and it makes me want to do something special. Playing against him one day - I don't want to think about right now. We have Melbourne to worry about.''
And Melbourne have him to fret over. Previously good, he's becoming great. We're watching Watmough at training. He's playing up like a 12-year-old, now he's busting a gut. We're listening to him talk with the rat-a-tat-tat velocity of a machine gun. We're getting a grip on a larger-than-life personality whose enthusiasm is natural, endless and infectious. Watmough drips with sweat and an increasingly formidable aura.
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Would you guys like to see him signed for 2011?
