Dreams Can Come True: A Conversation with Reds Prop Zane Nonggor

There are plenty of reasons it’s a great time to be a Reds fan! Yes, the team is on a winning streak at the moment, but regardless, with great players/people coming through the Reds pathway, the future looks bright for the game in our great state.

Zane Nonggor is one such player. At the age of 19, he’s already staking his claim in the side. He debuted last year against the Waratahs and has been named on the the bench for this weekends clash against the Western Force (this Saturday at Suncorp!!!)

I was lucky to get to catch up with him after training this week and we talked about everything, from his rugby journey, to what he thinks of his new nickname, “Baby Thor”.

I hope you enjoy reading, as much as I enjoyed talking with him!

Congrats to you and the whole team for the awesome win over the weekend!

Thank you! It was good to get the win down against the Brumbies, it was the first time in seven years [down in Canberra]. I was a pretty rough start, but they stuck to the structures, believed in each other and got the win.

Let’s talk about the year so far. How have you found settling into the 2021 season with the Reds? Much easier than 2020 I assume!

Yeah, it’s been really fun I guess. Since I had a bit of time last year, I knew all the names, knew all the faces and could get to know them a bit better. But at the start of the year I had a couple of injuries, a couple of niggles that kept me out of training for a couple of months so that was pretty annoying. But finally in the last month, it’s been really good getting back into full training. Still, every sessions harder than the one before, and I just want to get better. I’m still trying to adapt I guess to senior, professional footy.

What do you love the most about playing for Queensland and being based here at Ballymore?

What I love the most is… I’m a Queensland boy - born and bred, I’ve supported Queensland my whole life, when I’d watch rugby union it was always the Queensland Reds. I didn’t know too much about rugby when I first came, but as soon as I started playing at school, because this was my home state, there was really no question to go for the Queensland Reds. It’s really a dream come true to be able to come and train at Ballymore and to wear that Queensland jersey.

You joined the Reds as a prop. Have you always played in that position?

Yeah I have. I’m a bit big to play other positions. Even when I started playing footy I was always a tight-head prop, I never really tried any other positions. I’m pretty uncoordinated on the left side of the scrum, compared to the right. I have played a bit, during our Argentina tour with school, I played number 8 for 20 minutes of one game, that was pretty cool. But yeah, I’ve always been a prop.

I love hearing about peoples rugby journey’s. How old were you when you started playing rugby?

I started playing rugby in year 5, so I would have been 9 or 10 years old. When I first started, I wasn’t actually that good, I was just big. I started off in the B team, then the next year I was in Cs and Ds, the next year, Cs and Ds, it wasn’t until I was in year 8 that I started, I guess, getting good and making the A team and then for the rest of high school made the A team, then later I made the first XV for a couple of years, then in my last year, I played for Queensland under-18s and was lucky enough to make the Australian team.

I guess that kind of got me some attention from the people at the Reds and they offered me a contract, a development academy spot. Training there was really fun, because all the people I went to school with the year above me, we were all training together. Then covid hit and we were all split up. We just kept training, it was like a second pre-season really. I had some good numbers in the fitness tests during covid and they gave me an opportunity to come and train, just to make up numbers, after cover. I just kept training, and there were a couple of times when I thought I’d go back to academy, but they said “stay here” because there were a couple of injuries and they needed the numbers and I just kept training. I got the opportunity and it was really surreal. It all happened so fast and I couldn’t believe it when it was happened.

What inspired you to play the game?

Growing up in PNG, Rugby League was the main sport there and I watched a little bit of that, mostly just the State of Origin, but then when we came to Australia and I went to Southport, the only rugby they had there was rugby union. My grandad played a bit of rugby union for fun, this is my Grandad on my Mums side, my Australian side, and she said “you should really try it - you’ll love it, you’ll love it”. I was a bit nervous at the time, I didn’t think it would go that well. But she really pushed me to play and I had a blast of a time.

I guess what inspired me at the time was having fun with my mates and my Mum pushing me to try new things. I can really thank my Mum for everything that’s happened.

Can you tell us something about yourself that not many people know?

I’m left-handed, not many people know that… I used to be a lot bigger - too much Maccas and KFC when I was younger. Also, not a lot of people know that I’m from the highlands of Papa New Guinea, right in the middle of it. We lived up in the village for four years. That was a lot of fun. Not many people know that.

Do you like the nickname “Baby Thor”?

(Laughs) Yeah. Obviously, growing up, Nella (Taniella) was one of the people I watched very closely who was playing my position and bumping everyone off and throwing massive cut-off balls. All the props just wanted to be him. Being called Baby Thor is pretty funny, I definitely like that.

What is your team focusing on ahead of the game against the Force this weekend?

The team focus for this weekend is to keep improving. We had a good game against the Brumbies this week, it was a hard fought game against them. It was a slow start, so we want to just improve as much as possible and keep building upon our game, building on our structures, sticking to our structures and I guess playing the form that we can play. Not making too many mistakes and keep building pressure.

Thanks for taking time to catch up Zane! 

All good Tommy! It was a pleasure to be interviewed by you. I think you know more of the Reds than I do! It’s been awesome to catch up.

Don’t miss the Reds game this Saturday against the Western Force, 7:30pm at Suncorp Stadium!!!

Reds Rugby Rules Interviews Alex Mafi!!

Thank you Queensland for killing off Covid. Finally, the Reds have opened up their borders to visitors and I was able to watch training from the sidelines and do my first in-person interview for over a year! And what a great interview it was. I got to chat with Reds hooker, the powerful “back who’s been made into a forward”, Alex Mafi!



Even though he’s 51 games into his Super Rugby career, at 24, no doubt he still has many great years (and a few championships with the Reds) ahead of him! Also, I was interested to find out that all of his main rugby “heroes” growing up, were former or current Reds! Read on to find out who they were! 

Hey Alex, thanks for taking the time to catch up today!

No worries!

2 tries last week! It’s not often that forwards score one try - let alone two!!! 

Yeah I was really lucky out there Tommy, to be honest. Right place right time, I guess. One of them was really just a team try. I was behind a pack of, probably 12 boys in that mall... we had a few backs join in, so I was just a lucky one to have the ball.

The other one, that was probably the best moment of my career so far, to get that ball over the line at that time of the game, with the situation that we were in... especially considering I’d dropped the ball just minutes before that, I was really happy to get that second try.

You and BPA are a different type of forward. The Reds are lucky to have players that can run the ball too! Have you played a variety of positions over the years?

Yes. It’s really funny, I actually started off in the backs, Tommy. I started off playing inside centre and as I got older, I started eating and slowly made my way forward in the team. I made my way into the back row, I was playing number eight, and then just slipped into Hooker. I have an older brother, he was at Nudgee in the first XV, he was the hooker in grade 12 and I was in grade 8. They said to me you’ll most likely end up being a hooker and shifted me there in grade 8!

Congratulations on 50 games. How did it feel reaching that milestone during the season opener? 

Thanks Tommy! That was a really, really good way to start the season. Especially having it at home, in front of my family and friends, that was really special.

Last year I was in line to play my 50th two times, but both times I did my hammy [hamstring muscle] on the Thursday night before, so missed out through injury. We were about to play the Melbourne Rebels last year for the second round, I pulled my hammy and they said I’d be out for eight weeks. Then I made it back for the home semi, against the Rebels again and then I did the same thing again on the Thursday night! Then I did a bit of work over the off-season and the preseason to make it back and have my 50th in round one.

It was a great win against New South Wales. Good to get the cup for another year!

Yeah. That’s probably what was on my mind rather than it being my 50th. I had my mind more so on wanting to get that cup back and open up the season with a bit of silverware. I was really happy for us to win that Templeton cup.

How are you enjoying 2021 so far, overall? Also, how do you think you and the team have grown, since 2020?

Yeah I’m really enjoying 2021, it’s been a good year so far. No hiccups during the season so far, no Covid-19 stuff. And our team has grown a lot since last year. Everyone’s got a handful of caps out of their belt from last year, so everyone’s a little bit more experienced. The groups probably not as shy as they were last year, so they’re getting a lot more communication from each other.

Who were your rugby hero’s growing up?

When I was younger I would always go and watch my big brother’s first XV games from the sidelines. At that time, at Nudgee, James O’Connor was also playing. He was a freak... first year out of high school he went to play for the Western Force, then into the Wallabies. So he was a bit of a hero growing up. And now I’m playing with him, which is awesome. And during that time, when the Reds were so dominant - 2011-2010, Will Genia and Quade Cooper.

Can you tell us something else about yourself that not many people know?

Not many people know that I grew up in Mount Isa. Everyone thinks I’ve always been here in Brisbane, but I grew up in Mount Isa, my old man was working in the mines. I went to St Joseph’s Primary... and my first sport was soccer!

What will you be doing during bye weekend?

If the weather holds up, I’m planning to go fishing! I’m gonna go out to the Cape Waters on the top of Morton and see if I can find some fish out there. Sounds great. Enjoy the weekend off!

Thanks again Alex for your time!

No worries Tommy. Thanks for having me!

Catching up with Liam Wright: A Lesson in Leading from the Sidelines

Liam Wright needs no introduction to Reds fans. An active member of the squad since 2018, Brad Thorne appointed him team captain at the beginning of 2020. He led the team through the most difficult year of rugby ever as the team became runners up in the first ever "Super Rugby AU" competition.

As Super Rugby 2021 kicked off, Wright suffered an ankle injury during the Reds one and only pre-season match, which unfortunately has put him on the sidelines for a while. But this hasn't stopped him give whatever he can to the team and "leading from the sidelines", alongside stand-in skipper, my good mate, James O'Connor.

As Reds fans also know, the team has a lot of depth in their squad. As Super Rugby officially kicked off last weekend, the Reds defeated their old foe the Waratahs, 41-7.

I spoke with Liam about how he's travelling and what life is like for an "assistant assistant" coach (as Thorny calls him) and how his rehab is going.

Here's to a great 2021 for our Queensland Reds!

Hey Liam, great to see you! Thanks for making the time to catch up. Are you tired of Zoom yet?

(Laughs.) Yeah thanks Tommy, thanks for having me back again. Um… bits and pieces of it. It’s an easy to do things, especially at the moment… as you can see (moves camera) I’ve got my ankle just “ice-ing” up at the moment. But yeah, kind of missing all the face-to-face stuff.

Me too. How is the ankle?

Ah yeah the ankle’s going pretty good actually. We’re in week 3 at the moment… The first week and a half was very slow, I couldn’t do much except sit around and wait for it to swell and go down. I couldn’t do much gym or mobilisation or anything like that. The key was just to keep the swelling down, so that it didn’t inhibit our rehab further down track. We’re getting to the point now where we can push a lot more. We’ve had sessions in the pool where I can take the moon boot off which is really really nice. But yeah hopefully in a few weeks I’ll be out of that and away from the crutches.

We were all gutted about your injury. But at least, on the bright side, you’ve got a bit more time to chat!

(Laughs.) Yeah, exactly! I've had to spend the first couple of weeks finding ways to look at the bright side. I'm very happy to be here and talking to you and keep finding things to take out of it that are positive.

What does an average day look like for you, during injury recovery?

One of Liam's many hair styles he's sported while with the Reds

Yeah sure. The first couple of weeks were really annoying, because I wanted to be around the team and doing as much as I could, but it was really important from the physio's point of view to be off my feet as much as possible with my leg elevated. But now, I've been lucky enough that on a typical day, I can do gym, so a lot of upper body stuff 4-5 times a week and then we have been introducing some lower body things as well. We'll have treatment for about 30-40 minutes, making sure things don't tighten up and doing things on the ankle and then a lot of the other time is spent with the team, with the boys, which is really good. That's the thing I miss. A lot of the time I can't do a lot, I'm sitting on the sideline watching... but I'm trying to do a bit behind the scenes, with regards to our line out, and a bit of coaching and stuff. Thorny's calling me the "assistant assistant". So I'm finding ways to fit in and it's really good that I'm still able to be around the team. I'm trying to help out where I can and take a few things off Jame's shoulders.

I checked our last interview from July (last year) and the last time we spoke was right after we won the Bob Templeton Cup [the annual awards for the Queensland/New South Wales derby].

(Laughs) Pretty fitting then isn’t it! We just won it again and probably in better style, some would say. It’s a pretty good way to start out the year.

It’s very nerve racking watching on the sideline. I’m not a good spectator - knowing that I can’t do much about it.

Congrats to you and the whole team on a great start to the season. It was fun to watch!

Thank you.

What’s the number one thing that the team is focusing on at the moment?

I think, it’s probably not getting ahead of ourselves. We look back on that game, and it’s a good win, we’ll take that and it’s good being against the Tahs, but during that middle 30 minutes where we switched off... we had a one man advantage and we didn’t end up scoring any points on them. That was pretty disappointing. I think looking back on it we know we probably should have put another 20 points on. It’s probably a good reality check for us, saying "let’s not get ahead of ourselves". The Rebels are going to be very tough, different as well, and really it’s just about focusing on our own game, otherwise we fall Into the complacency trap.

Congratulations on being selected for the Wallabies last year!

Thank you.

What did you love most about the experience?

What did I enjoy… It was a pretty fresh group of guys coming in after the World Cup, new group of coaches as well, so it was a really fresh approach to everything. The thing I got out of it the most was… overall we had to take a step back and reconsider how you look at our individual game - how you approach it and how you can work on it. The new coaches saw different strengths and weaknesses and it was good to take a step back rather than look at the overall team thing. It was good to look at individual skills that I can add to my game that will make me a better player, things that you can sometimes gloss over and forget about during the regular season. I found that really interesting and really enjoyable.

I was at Suncorp when we beat the All Blacks. That was a good night!

That was a very good night. That was awesome. It was a bit of a crazy game, two red cards… but that I think it was good. Probably that red card to us helped validated it a bit. It would have been easy for people to write it off as saying “they only beat them because they had a man down” or something. I think in a way it was good for us to know that we can beat them. We probably let a few of our other games slip. But yeah it was good to get that last one at Suncorp, especially for Slip on his 100th match [James Slipper]. An old Reds man.

One of Liam's (debatably) more popular hair styles

Once a Red always a Red.

Yeah thats it. Exactly right.

Suncorp’s definitely become a fortress, for the Reds and the Wallabies. I love it!

Yeah we love it aswell. It’s something we’ve been trying to do, make it our fortress. And our fans like you Tommy are a big part of that and the reason we enjoy it.

Thanks heaps for taking time to catch up again Liam. I’m “cheering you on”, hoping you recover soon.

My pleasure. Any time.

Please say hi to everybody in the team for me. And all the best against the Rebels this Friday!

Thanks very much! Go the Reds!

Catching up with Jim McKay - The Mastermind behind Queensland's Attack

It's been a massive year for Australian rugby, let alone all of us in Queensland. While we look back and reflect on the Super Rugby season that's been, it was awesome to catch up (via Zoom) with the Queensland Reds attack coach, the hard working and down-to-earth Jim McKay. We caught up about a number of things, including the ups and downs of the year and compared where Queensland is at to 2011 (when he was also a part of the coaching staff.)

If you're a Reds fan, you'll love reading our conversation.

Hey Jim, thanks for taking time to chat!

No worries.

What does a Super Rugby attack coach get up to at this stage of the season? (Besides keeping an eye on the Wallabies of course.)

We’ve been doing a thorough review of our season just gone. Before every season we set some targets that we want to work on, so I look at them and see how we went and then we do an extensive review. 

We look at the trends in the game, for example, ball in play, mauling, or less mauling, line-outs etcetera and then from that, we come up with some good recommendations. From that, we look at how we can train more effectively... are there better ways we can train to get what we want. That affects the other coaches, the defence coach and conditioning coaches as well. From there, good things come up and not so good things. Then we think how can we put that into a strategy and then apply it next year.

You must feel extremely proud of all the Reds that have made the Wallabies squad this year!

Yeah we are Tom, as I’m sure you are as well, being a part of us. I think it’s a good endorsement of your program, particularly when they weren’t Wallabies before. The new ones in particular, you get very proud of. I know for myself as a players, I never played for Australia, so my drive was to help improve other players and the ultimate was when they could achieve that. So I feel very proud, to answer your question, to have some small part or role to play in that journey. And it means that we’re doing some things right here in Queensland, that they get recognised and that it’s a byproduct of our program here. You want to produce players for Australia.

A huge congrats on making it through a very eventful 2020 season, all the way to the Super Rugby AU finals!

Yeah. We were a wee bit disappointed that we couldn’t get the job done on the day. But if we look back and reflect on where we’ve come from, it shows really good progression. I think it’ll put us in good stead for the future, to have that experience. We had to negotiate our way through the competition, the semi-final we had to win, but unfortunately we weren’t good enough on the day, in the final. When you reflect back though, you’ve got to take the positives as well from the season.

What was the hardest thing about coaching the team throughout the lockdowns?

Probably not knowing when we could come back for training. You didn’t know whether to give them a complete rest, or whether it was going to be two weeks or two months. So it was quite hard to plan when you didn’t know a lot of information. 

What were you most proud of, about the team so far during 2020?

How we stuck together, for the most part and the way we played as well. The endeavour - that’s what you get most proud about.

You were a part of the Reds coaching staff in 2011, when we beat the Crusaders in the 2011 Super rugby grand final. What an awesome year that was. What’s your fondest memory of that season?

Yeah. It was a very good memory. My fondest memory is after the game, I thought about my Mum. But I also thought about - I had a girlfriend at the time, in England and we hadn’t seen each other for a year or something. So it’s just about the sacrifices they make to allow us to do what we do. That was my immediate thought after the game.

What inspired you to begin your coaching career?

The opportunity to help others and for them to fulfil their dreams really… and enjoy sport for what it can bring - it brings people together. I started coaching young kids in schools, 5 year olds, 12 year olds… it’s quite funny actually, I was in England and coaching at night time, old men, like 40-45 years, I had that side of it and during the day time I would be coaching young kids that were new to rugby. The more I did it, the more I realised I really enjoyed it and it was a privilege. I enjoy the team environment and working together for a common cause.

Which members of the Reds are the most difficult to coach?

(Laughs). I don’t know if I can really say. But the interesting thing is there, the most difficult ones, they’re normally the best ones, as in the most rewarding. And the most healthy relationships as well. So in the same breath, difficult and rewarding.

What do you enjoy most about the culture at Ballymore?

As a generalisation, the Queensland people are generally humble and hard-working and they don’t get too far ahead of themselves. It’s a slower pace of life, for example, compared to Sydney. And the players have known each other for quite some time, through school, or through clubs. And when we come together for Queensland, it sort of means something. They really view themselves as Queenslanders and I really like that.

I’ve really noticed the culture of “care” at Ballymore. I’d even say, on behalf of the fans, that the supporters really care about the team too.

Yeah. It’s important, yes you want to win, but it’s important for people to see how you play and you’ve got to inspire people. I feel we’ve awakened them a little bit. I’ve always coached my team to be positive and within the rules and you’ve got to play in a way that excites people where they can see what you’re trying to do. Certainly it was like that when I was here last time [2010-14], but yeah we’re well on track to that.

It’s really important that people can see you give everything, when they come to watch you play.

Thanks heaps Jim for taking time to chat. All the best with your work, during the so called “off-season”. I’m looking forward to 2021 already!

Yeah, good on you Tom. It’s lovely to chat with you and thanks for taking some time and interest as well.

Super Rugby 2020 - Reds Wrap-up

While we look forward to the Wallabies tests coming up, let's look back on one of the most eventful Super Rugby seasons ever.

At the start of the year, I predicted 2020 would be our year. Maybe that’s what every sports fan is supposed to think, but I had a feeling something would happen. The Reds, with Brad Thorne as coach, have been building for a while and it seemed like just a matter of time before things clicked.

The Reds played the first three games of the season away, in three different countries! Canberra in week one, then South Africa and Argentina after that! This was a tough draw, but in hindsight, maybe it’s lucky the Reds got to see the world while they could!

I was lucky to get to go to a few of the captains runs at Suncorp (pre-lockdown of course)

Week 4 was “hunting season” and we beat the Sunwolves by… a lot of points (64-5). That was a fun game.

During the Reds trip to Christchurch, the team almost beat the 2019 champions. Even with form playmaker James O’Connor injured, they came within 4 points of beating the Crusaders on their home ground. This was a team on the rise!

They came home to wallop the Bulls 41-17 and then….. then season was no more.

I did get some great interviews in before the lockdowns. I managed to catch up with Lukhan Salakaia-Loto, Henry Speight, Carter Gordan, Averyl Mitchell, Kiri Lingman, Saxon Campbell, Courtney Hodder, Gabby Senft and Natassja Purontakanen...

Unfortunately my interview with Henry Speight failed to record (you've got to love technology!) and a rescheduled interview never quite took place before he relocated to France after the first season ended!

However, let it be known that we had had a great chat and he's an awesome bloke. Thanks Henry for what you brought to the Reds team, you definitely left your mark on the squad while you were here! (We'll publish an interview some day...)

As everyone went into lockdown, communication went online for many of us and fortunately, the interviews kept going!

I was very lucky to catch up a number of great former-Reds (mainly using Zoom). I loved getting to catch up with Liam Gill, Toutai Kefu, Eddie Quirk, Will Genia, Curtis Browning, Andrew Slack, James Horwill, Dan Crowley and Saia Fainga'a. It was awesome to hear stories from all of these classic Reds. Lockdowns were hard for all of us, but thanks to everyone for keeping Reds Rugby Rules going!

After their second round of "pre-season" training (!) the Reds launched into Super Rugby 2020 2.0!

To say us Reds fans were excited is an understatement. Game one was a ripper and the Reds beat New South Wales at Suncorp to take home the "Bob Templeton Cup".

(A special thanks to captain Liam Wright for taking time to catch up and share what it's like inside the "bubble", during week 1 of the season reboot. Thanks also to Tuaina "T" Tualima, James O'Connor and Tate McDermitt for also sharing their stories! It was also a huge pleasure interviewing sports jock/commentator Jaybor Staunton.)

Every other home game from then on was a win and the Reds didn't loose too many games on the road either. Many times, right before my eyes, things just seemed to "click" on the field and as a life-long Reds fan, it was a joy to watch.

The season gave us many great games with great highlight reels, but I'll make special mention of our final home game win against the Brumbies.

A week later, we beat Melbourne in the semi-final at Suncorp. This was a hard-fought, well deserved win.

As Reds fans know, unfortunately, we didn't beat the Brumbies in the final and I've got to hand it to the them for playing extremely well. Even though we were all sad not to go all the way, the Reds never gave up and I couldn't be more proud!

It looks like the Wallabies are better off because of the Reds hard work and success this year. It's definitely a new day for the Reds and who knows what's possible for Australia from here!

Tate McDermott: Walking the Talk in 2020

The Reds are well and truely on fire at the moment and one of the men providing constant fuel AND flames is Tate McDermott. As comfortable as ever in his roll as half-back, he also seems to be enjoying playing rugby more than ever! He spoke about why this is and shared some ways that the lockdown worked in our teams favour.

You can read my past interviews with Tate at Ballymore Stadium (before everything went digital) here and here.

Hey Tate, great to catch up again! Thanks for making time!

That’s alright, not a problem. Thanks for having me Tommy.

What a game last weekend, but more importantly, what a season so far!

Yeah mate. We obviously started pretty well, we were undefeated for the first three games, then we fell a bit under, against the Brumbies and the Tahs, but the past 2 weeks has been some of the best footy I’ve ever been a part of… since I’ve been here at the Reds. Particularly last week against the Force, I think the boys were really hungry for a performance like that. So, in front of the fans in the Gold Coast as well and everyone watching back home in Brisbane and around Queensland, I thought that was awesome mate. It was really special to be a part of that.

What’s been the best thing about the Super Rugby 2020 season, 2.0?

Yeah. One thing was… well I wouldn’t say this was the best thing, but we had so much time to prepare… We had a bit of a “test” for the first seven games of the year, when we played so much overseas, we had our South African trip and played a few kiwi teams.. But as you say “2.0”.. it’s been really good so far. We know where we are amongst the Australian sides. Obviously we’re not sure what’s going to happen next year and who we’re playing. But we’ve certainly gauged ourselves as one of the best teams in Australia. So I’m just really enjoying it to be honest. It’s really good to know your opposition as well as we do. And I think the travelling side of it… we’re not allowed to move around too much when we’re back home, but just to be back in Queensland, sleeping in your own bed leading up to the games, has been really good.

So you don’t have any inside information on next year? Any inside scoops?

Honestly, I’d love to share it with you Tommy, but I don’t have a clue what’s happening. It’s frustrating, but at the same time everyone’s going through quite a bit, financially and stuff like that.

You had a ripper of a game against the Force. What was your favourite moment  of the game?

Um.. I’d be lying if I said it wasn’t my try (laughs). But I think just looking, at the end of the game at the score and the fans and at my teammates and everyone was so happy, coaches included. Yeah, there were quite a few special moments in that game, but it’s awesome when you know you’ve given your absolute all and everyone around you has done the same. I reckon, once the whistle was blown - actually I think we got a try after the 80 minutes as well - but I think when the game was done, that was the best part of the game.

The very first time we caught up for Reds Rugby Rules, it was obvious to me how much you love playing the game. It looks like your enjoying your rugby more than ever. Is that the case?

Yeah, 100%. I’ve always grown up watching the Reds play, the Wallabies play, I’ve always just loved the sport. Obviously Rugby Leagues a lot stronger in Australia at the moment, but I just love how global this game is… you only had to watch the rugby World Cup last year… I’ve definitely got goals of trying to play for the Wallabies one day, but at the moment, like you just said I’m just enjoying it. I’m just trying to relax and not worry as much as I have in the past. It obviously comes playing teams that like I said before, that you know a lot better… I’ve played in 20s and club rugby over here. It’s been my third year at the Reds and I’ve started to make those really good friendships with the boys around me. A lot of the boys are my age coming through and there’s guys even younger. It’s just a really good group around me and everything seems to be working in the right direction. So it’s a really promising start for the future mate.

I caught up with James for my last blog interview. What’s it like playing alongside him at number 9?

Yeah. You only have to watch the game over the weekend to realise how good James is at his job. We obviously saw him coming through when he was a youngster. He’s almost thirty now, so I’ve watched a lot of James on the television and on youtube, you know his highlights and all that. It’s an honour to play alongside of him. One of the biggest things we needed was a consistent playmaker and we’ve definitely found that with James. You know, he always just wants to get his hands on the ball, beat defenders and line-breaks and set people up. Just look at his stats to realise just how good he is at creating opportunities for player outside of him. I love being around him, every time I pass him the ball I know he’s going to create something. So I think that’s just for all players as well, just to be around him, knowing that he’s most likely going to put you through a hole, or make you look a lot better than you are. He’s a really good player and I love playing with him.

What are some things you did to help you get through the lockdown?

So I was fairly lucky, I got to spend a lot of time with my family who live up the Sunshine Coast. My sisters trapped in Hobart, but my brother was there, and my Mum and Dad as well. I was pretty lucky, that house is located next to the beach, so every day was spent at the beach, or down at my local rugby park just spending quality time with my brother and my parents. I’d say my family was massive in getting me through the lockdown, a lot of days were spent on the couch binge-watching television. Everyone was bored, but I was pretty lucky I was up at the Sunny coast and still had quite a lot of things to do.

Do you feel like your team are working together even better after the lockdown? Has it brought the team closer together?

Yeah, massively. It all looks like we’ve started to play a lot of games together over the last few years and we almost had two pre-seasons. We know each others games pretty much inside and out. We obviously see a lot of each other at the moment - we’re almost forced to see each other now. But it’s great, because of the quality of the boys we have now. On the field they’re amazing, but off the field they’re even better. Everyone's gelled over what we’ve been through. We really had to buy in to what Thorny and the Reds organisation have had planned for us and I think we’re seeing the fruits of that at the moment. Everyone is closer and on the field it’s really starting to translate. 

Thanks again for taking time to chat, even though it’s through a computer screen!

Nah, not a problem Tommy. Anytime for the best fan aye?

Don’t miss this Saturday’s final round game at Suncorp Stadium, against the Brumbies. Saturday, 5th Sept, 7:15pm. Then next week...... Finals!!!!!!