Wesser proves he's king of the kids of a new generation
February 2, 2006
Penrith's Rhys Wesser joined teammates in Orange yesterday, giving some schoolchildren a day to remember, writes Greg Prichard.
RHYS Wesser may be from Rockhampton and play for Penrith, but he was at home in Orange yesterday.
The twinkle-toed fullback with the blinding acceleration and tryscoring touch does not have any children of his own yet but he has made plenty of room in his life for other kids.
Wesser is in the final few months of a TAFE course that will qualify him as a youth worker and when the management of the Panthers sought volunteers to take part in the Community Carnival for the NRL it was only natural he put his hand up.
Kids warm to Wesser and he was surrounded by the young locals as soon as he appeared with some teammates for a coaching clinic and autograph session at Endeavour Oval in Orange.
Wesser says the fact he was able to realise his childhood dream of playing first grade convinced him to do whatever he could to help kids achieve their goals.
"I was one of the lucky ones," Wesser said at the end of yesterday's session. "I went to a good school and I had good role models. I didn't hang around with people who did drugs. But around the region I came from I saw how difficult it was for so many of the kids who were disadvantaged. It's a lot harder for kids like that to realise their dreams and the desire to do something to help kids like that stuck with me."
Wesser got involved in the Panthers On The Prowl program to assist troubled children and extended his commitment when he began the TAFE course.
"Preston [Campbell, the Penrith five-eighth] and I are doing the course one day a week, on our day off from training," Wesser said. "The teachers come out to our training complex and instruct us and we do a lot of practical work, going to drop-in centres to talk to kids, that sort of thing.
"Panthers On the Prowl organises for troubled kids to be nominated to the club and we introduce them to a program designed to help them overcome their problems and encourage them to have goals. It's all about being positive. Myself and the other Penrith guys were kids once and we had goals and we're achieving them. The kids we meet have got the opportunity to do the same."
Wesser and other Panthers including Trent Waterhouse, Joel Clinton and Danny Galea visited numerous schools and a hospital before joining Australian Rugby League development officers for the coaching clinic.
They returned to Penrith late last night and a different group of Panthers players will head to the central west this morning to complete a similar schedule in Bathurst and nearby districts. A total of 100 players are visiting 40 destinations in NSW, Queensland and Victoria this week.
Primary school students from St Marys Catholic put the innocence of youth on full display when they bombarded Waterhouse and Galea with a series of questions, including: "Have you ever tackled someone and broken their leg or something?", "Why are you called the Panthers?", "Have you ever felt guilty about tackling someone?"
One boy, who had obviously spent a bit of time working on the phrasing of his question, asked confidently: "How many times have you tackled the great Australian halfback Andrew Johns?"
Galea told the boy his debut first-grade game was against Newcastle in 2002 and that Johns was one of the first players he tackled, adding that it was still one of the things he remembered most about his time in the game.
Wesser said he got enormous satisfaction out of a day like yesterday. "I think it's a big part of what the game is about, going to places like Orange and giving back to the community," he said.
"So many of the game's best players come from country areas like this. And the kids are always fun. They never put you down. They're just innocent in their curiosity about what you do."
Meanwhile, the Bulldogs have settled with former football manager Garry Hughes who was suing the club over his dismissal and comments made about him in the club's press releases in the aftermath of the Bulldogs 2004 Coffs Harbour sexual assault scandal.
"
some people may have interpreted the press releases and the subsequent media reports to impugn his [Hughes] good character and particularly to think he had personally contributed to an incident in Coffs Harbour which was the subject of a police investigation by Task Force McGuigan," the club said in a statement yesterday.
"It was not and has never been the intention of the club to in any way denigrate or implicate the good name of Garry Hughes or his family, including his sons Glen and Corey, by issuing press releases."
