Source: RLW April 19, 2006
HIT THE ROAD
by Adam Burnett
ON the field, Premier League is about the closest thing to the NRL you'll find. A no-holds barred, survival of the fittest competition designed to arm new-bloods with the necessary wares for doing battle with seasoned NRL gladiators.
And that's just the way these fellas like it.
The biggest difference lies away from the game. Where NRL stars sign autographs & sponsorship deals, PL players sign off on their carefully marked logbooks at the end of the financial year to ensure the taxman has duly rewarded their toil as plumbers, brickies or sparkies.
Take Norths fullback John Russell, who lives on one side of Sydney, plays on the other and works anywhere and everywhere in between...
"I get up at 4:30am, and I'm out the door by 4:50" he says. "I go to Parramatta, where I work as a plumber, and from there I go wherever the work takes me - down to Goulburn, up to The Entrance, wherever"
"Then after work I come straight to training at North Sydney and train from 5pm until about 7:30pm, I get home an hour later, have a shower and go to bed."
A return trip from NS to Campbelltown is just over 120km. From work in Parramatta, he may travel as far as Goulburn - a 354km round trip. On any given day, Russell could clock up 450km.
When the 21-yo finally gets to NS Oval, coach Josh White ensures Russell trains his guts out before finally heading home, well past dark.
"Yeah we work all day every day and then come and fit training in at night," he says. "Some days it takes it out of you, but you just get in there and get it done. You get used to it."
Not exactly glamorous, but the dream of making first grade is enough to sustain him.
"I'm loving my footy here at Norths," says John, relaxing for just a short moment under one of the Moreton Bay figs that casts its shadow over the historic ground. "Everyone gets along, we're all mates."
A prop in his younger days who has covered "pretty much every position," Russell has been joined at the club in 2006 by his older brother, 5/8th Daniel, aged 22.
"Daniel was at Parra last year and was thinking about going to the Magpies or playing in JBC, but I told him to have a run here because he'd get a good opportunity"
Previously with the Eels himself, the diminuitive fullback ended a five-year contract at Parramatta after a falling-out with now-first-grade-coach Jason Taylor.
"We didn't see eye to eye on a couple of things," he recalls, "Then Mark Horo (Eels official) gave me Josh White's number and suggested I give him a call".
Russell knows the quality of competition he faces for a #1 jersey in the NRL. The Melbourne squad, of which his Bears side is a feeder club, are a prime example.
"It'd be a bit hard because the Storm have about 4 fullbacks as it is," he grins. "I just want to have a great year and hopefully get picked up by someone. I'm happy to go anywhere."
And his logbook is testament to that.
I'll merge it in a minute, I'm just getting it out there for you to read
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