Best remembered as a ball-playing back-rower with the Bears, Craig Wilson remains heavily involved in rugby league in the pathways and development area. Big League caught up with the man affectionately known as ‘Pod’.
CRAIG, YOU’VE SPENT MORE THAN 20 YEARS IN JUNIOR DEVELOPMENT WITH NRL CLUBS – WHAT ARE THE MAIN CHANGES YOU’VE SEEN IN THAT SPACE?
The growth in the Polynesian game and the numbers. But also a lot of it’s gone full circle – in the old days, it was about skill, then training … players now are all physically capable and fit, it doesn’t matter where you go. It’s about having that extra skill set, that can be the difference between winning and losing.
WHAT ARE YOU MOST PROUD OF DURING YOUR SEVEN YEARS IN THE BULLDOGS’ PATHWAYS SYSTEM?
The numbers that are now staying within our club. We have a ‘Bulldogs House’, for example, and over a period of about five years, 30-odd players went through that. When I first arrived, none of those guys went through to our senior grades; in the last four of five years, we’ve had four of five kids go through that house and into the NRL with more still in our reserve grade. If they’re staying here longer, we’re obviously doing things a little bit better.
One of the biggest changes that I’ve seen is ‘Gus’ (Phil Gould) and Adam Hartigan going to look at the gym facilities the club had been using for a considerable period of time before we even got here. It took them 15 minutes to say, ‘Look, this is not acceptable’. Now our Harold Matts team are using the same gym as our NRL team – that’s made a considerable difference from a physical approach and our players’ ability to compete.
LOOKING BACK AT YOUR CAREER, HOW MUCH DID HAVING A FORMER KANGAROO FORWARD (GRAHAM) FOR A DAD AND A DALLY M ROOKIE OF THE YEAR FOR A BROTHER (ALAN) INFLUENCE YOUR PROGRESS?
Well, it sounds a bit silly, but I was more interested in cricket, to be honest. I took it pretty seriously until about 15 years old. I used to work with Dad, then I got the cricket draw for the season and some of those days I had to work. So it sort of took a backseat and I picked up rugby league seriously around that time. Mum had two brothers who played first grade, so it was a big rugby league family and I was always around it.
YOU WERE A DE LA SALLE CARINGBAH JUNIOR…HOW DID YOU END UP AT NORTH SYDNEY?
I captained Cronulla in SG Ball but I got spotted by the Bears at one of the schoolboy carnivals. They came and spoke to mum and dad and I thought, ‘Here’s an opportunity to get away and become more than following in footsteps’, because Dad [and my brother] also played for Sharks. I’m forever grateful to the Bears for the opportunity.
AFTER OVERCOMING SOME INJURY SETBACKS AND ENJOYING SOME RESERVE GRADE GRAND FINAL SUCCESS, YOU WERE MADE CAPTAIN FOR A STINT AT THE START OF 1993 AFTER ONLY 16 FIRST GRADE GAMES. HOW DID THAT APPOINTMENT UNFOLD?
Peter Louis was the new coach, (incumbent captain) Tony Rea was out at the time. I’d played reserve grade under Peter and he wanted somebody who knew what he needed and to get us around the park. I said, ‘What about all the other blokes – ‘Flo’ (Greg Florimo), David Fairleigh, Gary Larson, Mario (Fenech)?’. He said, ‘I’ve already spoken to them, they’re okay with the decision’. So I was captain for the first seven or eight games before Tony Rea came back.
YOU WERE AN INTERCHANGE SPECIALIST BEFORE THAT ROLE WAS TRULY IN VOGUE – WERE YOU COMFORTABLE PREDOMINANTLY COMING OFF THE BENCH?
I was always in the 17 somewhere. I thought I could go somewhere else, but we had a pretty strong club at the time. I had some great mates there and I thought we were realistic chances of winning premierships anywhere from 1991 to 1996 when I left.
We make fun of it now, but the guys used to call me George Negus because I only played 60 minutes, I didn’t play the first 20. But I understood it because there were guys whose games were far more physical, suited better to that early part of the game. I preferred to run and play with the football, rather than tackle. Don’t get me wrong, it was nice to start – but I wasn’t too upset sitting there getting a bit of a rest until everyone got tired. That was the philosophy, it seemed to work and knowing you were a chance to win every week made a big difference.
YOU WERE RENOWNED FOR HAVING A SILKY KICKING GAME FOR A FORWARD AND YOU LANDED SEVEN FIELD GOALS IN YOUR FIRST GRADE CAREER. IS THAT SOMETHING YOU HAD TO HONE OR DID IT COME NATURALLY?
When you’re a kid you’re just playing, you don’t think too much about it. I used to practice field goals and if there was an opportunity when you’re 12 in front, you want to take an extra one. But I remember I kicked one against the Warriors when I was playing for the Steelers that put us five in front. When we came off the field, the coach asked, ‘What did you do that for?’ I said, ‘Well, five’s better than four.’ He just shook his head. I used to get the rush of blood and think, ‘Oh yeah, I’ll have a crack at this’. I remember chip-and-chasing in my own 25 in the finals against Brisbane in ’94…
YOU PLAYED FOR THE CRUSHERS, STEELERS AND (SHORT-LIVED SUPER LEAGUE CLUB) GATESHEAD THUNDER IN THEIR LAST SEASONS IN CONSECUTIVE YEARS…
That is the source of many laughs among my mates, they say I’ve folded more clubs than a game of poker. I’ve been to a few clubs and you have a few really close mates at each, then the rest of them are good mates – I still talk to guys I played with at the Crushers, I’m on a group chat with the guys from the Steelers, and we’ve got a WhatsApp group with the Bears players.
YOUR NICKNAME, ‘POD’, IS ONE OF THE MORE WELL KNOWN IN RUGBY LEAGUE CIRCLES – WHO COINED IT?
We went on one of those army resilience camps when I first came into the Bears’ top squad in 1988. I just wanted to play … we didn’t see a footy. They trained us, they flogged us, they ran us. They woke us up at four in the morning. We’re running through the bush, they’re showing us how to handle a snakebite. After two or three days, I’m starting to whinge and complain: ‘This is shit, I want to go home’. This continued and about four days later they woke us up early and I started again, and one of the trainers says, ‘Will you just shut the f**k up? You’re a f**king pod!’ Everyone’s going, ‘What’s a pod mean?’ He said, ‘Prophet of doom’. That was 1988 – everyone calls me ‘Pod’, very few people know me as Craig Wilson. There’s people in rugby league who don’t know my first name!
DATE OF BIRTH
21 September, 1969
CURRENT AGE
56
BIRTHPLACE
Sydney, NSW
POSITIONS
Second-row, Lock
PLAYING HISTORY
1991-96: North Sydney Bears
1997: South Queensland Crushers
1998: Illawarra Steelers
1999: Gateshead Thunder
2000: Hull FC
JUNIOR CLUB
De La Salle, Caringbah
TOTAL NRL MATCHES
150
TRIES | POINTS
19 | 83
