What are you up to these days Tim? How’s life treating you?
I’m going well, thanks mate. I’ve got two kids. One just started high school and the other is in year five so they are keeping me busy with sport and different school activities. Most your time goes into keeping them happy, but I love it.
Are they playing footy?
My boy is more of an academic to be honest. He went to an advanced learning school and is a really smart kid, which he obviously gets from his mother.
So his schooling days are looking a bit different to yours then. Tell us about playing in a grand final as a schoolboy back in ’89?
It was pretty awesome, I can’t lie. That year, I was hoping to crack the under 21s while I was finishing off school but it all sort of happened pretty quickly.
I was really lucky to have a great teacher at school in Jan Davies who helped me a lot with extra tutoring and make up lessons, so that allowed me to split my time between school and footy.
I’ve always thought that you’ve got to be ready to take any opportunity you get in life and that’s what I tried to do.
It doesn’t always work out for people on their first go, but for me, I was lucky to come into a fantastic Tigers side with a lot of talent and experience and I just did my best to make the most of every opportunity I got.
By the time it got to the grand final, I’d played 15 or so games in first grade but I hadn’t played against Big Mal (Meninga) before and I ended up marking him in the centres.
Everyone knew how good he was, but I was a cheeky young fella and just backed myself. I weighed about 78kgs back then and that was probably how much Mal’s left leg weighed.
But I had plenty of confidence. I played in an Australian Schoolboys side alongside Freddie (Fittler) and a bunch of other guys that played plenty of footy at a young age so we all just sort of thought that’s what we were supposed to be doing. If you’re old enough, you’re good enough I say.
Do you think more coaches should back young players these days?
Absolutely, but it really comes down to each individual kid. The training is completely different now as well.
Back when I started in 1989, we still weren’t doing set weight sessions as a team. We all just did it by ourselves and I was lucky to have guys like Wayne Pearce, Johnny Elias and Siro (Paul Sironen) who showed me the way pretty early on.
I think I started when I was 14, finishing school and going to the gym because I knew it was important. But it’s still nothing like today.
The kids now learn a lot more about how the body works, the importance of rest and what they need to put into their bodies to make them bigger, stronger and fitter.
So they come out ready to play so I do think there is room for more younger guys.
But you’ve got to get the mix right in a squad. If you look at the teams that are struggling now, they haven’t got that balance right.
Looking back at that 1989 grand final, we had young guys sure, but outside of us it was like an Origin match with all the big names.
It was a five-metre rule game but it played like a 10-metre rule game because the quality was so high.
You went on to have plenty of success in your career but Balmain never got as close as they did in 1989. Is that a regret of yours?
It’s not a regret but you look back on it. When I played in 1989, I loved it and probably thought I’d be back playing in grand finals every year. But after 1990, I never played another finals game again.
We had so much talent at Balmain and we came close in ’95 or ’96, but we just couldn’t get back there.
In saying that, I think that’s why I was always so hungry to play Origin and to play for Australia. I ended up playing in two World Cups and in six Origin series, so while it’s not the same, they were my trophies.
You played plenty of rep footy. Is there a particular team or series that stands out when you look back on that part of your career?
They were all great mate but you grow up as a kid watching the Kangaroos and wanting to represent your country.
The 1994 tour was Mal’s (Meninga) fourth and it ended up being the last real Kangaroo tour, so that was pretty special. I was on the bench in the Test team and then also in the Emus’ side, so I played almost every game on that tour.
It didn’t help my partying, but I still had a good time, that’s for sure.
The World Cup in 1992 was also special. It was my first crack in the Australian team and it sort of came from nowhere after I played probably the best half of footy I ever played in the final Origin match that year, which got me into the Australian squad.
I went alright in the trial games in the lead up to the World Cup and ended up earning a spot in the side and got to play at Wembley in front of 80-90 thousand people.
The 1995 World Cup was also special because I was a little older.
There was Chief (Paul Harragon), myself, Freddie (Fittler), we were the senior guys so we had a lot of fun on that tour.
We were the underdogs because we didn’t have any Super League players but we came together as a team and kicked their buts.
Who is the most underrated player you played with or against?
I reckon Freddie deserves a lot more credit for his playing days.
They talk about all the immortals and that’s well deserved, but I played with Brad Fittler in the Aussie Schoolboys and in a number of rep teams and I just loved playing with him.
I remember in the World Cup, we scored from a move that we’d used back on that schoolboy tour. When we were on the field together, we just clicked. If I saw a gap, I just ran for it and I knew the ball would be on my chest.
He’s done a lot post footy, which is perhaps why people overlook his playing days.
But Freddie was a terrific footballer and he could do it in a number of different positions as well.
How are your Tigers’ going to fare this season?
They’ve still got plenty of work to do. They won on the weekend but that first half last week against the Eels was probably one of the worst halves of footy I’ve seen in quite some time. Both teams just couldn’t hold onto the ball.
They managed to win, but they can’t keep playing like that and expect to win against quality oppositions.
