Securing Inglis was so simple for Storm
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Brad Walter
September 30, 2006
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TEENAGE sensation Greg Inglis was the easiest signing ever made by Storm recruitment manager Peter O'Sullivan, the man targeted by Sydney Roosters to help restore their team as a premiership powerhouse.
Recounting the story of how he snared the 19-year-old now regarded as the face of rugby league in Melbourne, O'Sullivan revealed that no other NRL clubs had shown an interest in the player.
"Not one," O'Sullivan told the Herald. "It was the easiest signing I have ever made in my life. I saw him at a northern NSW schoolboys game at Port Macquarie. I was standing behind the goalposts and there was this skinny little kid running around and he jumped up to get a ball and had to pull his hand under from hitting the crossbar. He was 14 then.
"I went home, did some checking on him, flew up the next day and signed him. It wasn't until three years later that other clubs realised how good he was. Even Todd Buckingham, who taught him at school and is a player manager, hadn't tried to sign him."
It's an example of how far ahead of the pack O'Sullivan and the Storm are in regards to recruiting, an area they have to excel in since interchange forward Jeremy Smith is the closest thing to a Melbourne product in the NRL after playing for the Altona Roosters from under 13s until his family moved to the Gold Coast when he was 17.
The Storm are forced to rely heavily on identifying young talent from other areas and developing them into NRL players. A frequent visitor to New Zealand, O'Sullivan spends more time away than at home and is even planning to head to Great Britain for a month at the end of the year.
"I try to get to places that the others aren't, and get in first," he said. "A few years ago I tried to sign Danny McGuire, Adam Briscoe, Gareth Hock and Sean O'Loughlin because I knew that with David Waite going over to England, he is so good at implementing systems and structures that those kids would come good sooner rather than later.
"There's kids there who will want to come and get a bit of sun and enjoy a change of lifestyle and their kids are just as good as ours, so I'm just going over for four or five weeks at the end of the season to have a bit of a look."
O'Sullivan had his eye on Steve Turner since the former Penrith fullback was 15 years old and also lured Brett White, Ryan Hoffman and Nathan Friend to Melbourne before they became established first-graders. Inglis (Macksville), Antonio Kaufusi (Bundaberg) and Adam Blair (Whangarei) were all recruited as schoolboys.
Next season, promising centre Israel Folau, prop Aiden Tolman, halfback Liam Foran and one of the other four members of the Australian schoolboys team recruited by O'Sullivan will join the club's full-time squad, along with Melbourne junior Jarrod Stack.
The Storm will have to fend off attempts by the Roosters to poach O'Sullivan after the Bondi-based club approached him to join a new-look coaching staff that was to be headed by Brisbane's Wayne Bennett.
Bennett recently announced he would not be leaving the Broncos and O'Sullivan indicated he was likely to stay put. "It's flattering but I don't think I want to move anywhere," he said.
