What are you up to these days Steve?
Mate, all good on my end. I’ve got five kids and they’re all on their way. The youngest is 22 now.
I’ve been working in Indigenous health for a while. We’ve been running the Deadly Choices program going on 14 years or so now and we’re still rolling that out nationally.
I’ve also had type-1 diabetes for 32 years, so I do a bit of work for Australian Digital Health and another company called Medtronic. It’s all in the health area and I spend a lot of time trying to improve the outcomes for indigenous Australians, which is something I really enjoy doing.
Tell us about the impact you continue to have with the Deadly Choices program?
We launched Deadly Choices with the Broncos back in 2013. In short, we use sport to try to encourage our mob to make healthy choices for themselves and their families and we know how much our mob love rugby league.
We’ve shifted into AFL as well now to reach other parts of the country, but we’ve now got 22 clinics set up in southeast Queensland and we’re about to expand further into NSW, which is something we’re really excited about.
Tell us about your journey from a small town to the Broncos?
I grew up in Murgon (three hours north west of Brisbane) in a family of 12. I’ve got eight sisters and three brothers and we all loved rugby league.
I got pretty lucky with my timing. I finished school in 1987 and the Broncos were starting in 1988. So after I made the Queensland U16s, I got noticed by the Broncos and ended up signing a three-year contract while I was still in school.
How exciting was it to be around the Broncos in those early days?
It was unreal. That first year in ’88, then to win our first grand final in ’92. It all happened pretty quickly and I was lucky enough to play in another three grand finals after that.
We just had such a great team and the way the club and the team was pulled together by Wayne Bennett, it was just an honour to be a part of.
You played in a lot of good football sides across club and rep footy, is there a particular team that stands out?
Any of the Australian teams in the 90s were pretty incredible. It was a fantastic era with some many good players popping up at the same time.
From a club perspective, the 1998 Broncos who played in the very first NRL grand final was pretty special. We had a good split of older boys who had played in those early grand final teams, then we had the younger guys pushing through like Shane Webcke, Darren Lockyer and Gordon Tallis.
You spoke about the Australian teams in the 1990s, but weren’t the Queensland teams almost just as good?
Oh yep, absolutely. As a kid in Murgon, all I ever wanted to do was to play for Queensland. I made my first team in the under 16s and then lapped up every chance I got to wear a maroon jersey.
I played my first Origin in ’91 in a team skippered by my idol Mal Meninga and got to play alongside Wally Lewis. It was a dream come true to be honest with you.
You also played through the Super League years. It’s been 30 years since the start, I imagine they were pretty crazy times?
It was a really difficult time and it’s probably overlooked at how tough it was on the players.
We were aligned with Super League up in Brisbane and because I signed to stay with the Broncos, who had looked after me my whole career, I had to turn down a Test jersey.
I haven’t talked too much about that over the years, but that was really difficult, to turn down a chance to play for your country. I had to call the ARL and tell them I was sticking with the Broncos, and it wasn’t easy. But that’s history now.
Fortunately, when everything came back together, I got to play one last time for the Kangaroos in 1998, which kind of justified everything, but I still hate thinking I missed a chance to wear the Australian jersey.
Who was the most underrated player you played with?
There’s a lot of boys I went to school with and grew up with from home who were much better footballers than me.
They all got the opportunity, but for varied reasons, didn’t push on. I could name a handful of guys I went to school with who could have easily played first grade, but it just didn’t work out.
The Broncos are looking strong this year, aren’t they?
They’ve had a great start to the season and they look the goods at the moment.
With everything they’ve gone through over the last few years, I think the boys have grown up a bit and are showing a bit more maturity now that they are a little older.
They are still a young group, but it’s tough when you come into first grade at a young age and it often takes you a few years to work it out. I think that’s exactly what is happening for a number of those boys at the Broncs and you can see the difference.
They’ve had a great start to the season, so hopefully they can carry on with it.
