Rugby League: Fittler happy to sit this one out

By PETER JESSUP

Brad Fittler felt no pangs of age, loneliness or loss when sitting in the stands watching State of Origin on Wednesday.

"If anything I felt nervous for the players. But I didn't want to be in their shoes," said the Australia, New South Wales and Roosters great.

Fittler has a family to think of now and he announced some weeks back that he would retire at the end of the season.

It said much about his stature in the game that the club held off negotiations with everyone else until it had his decision.

As the highest-paid player in the game, the need to meet his salary dictated what the Roosters could do with everyone else yet they all had to wait until 'Freddy' made the call, no push.

It's respect he appreciates, but it embarrasses him.

Fittler was pleased the Origin game came off as it did, a spectacle in entertainment terms and no controversy.

"After all the drama of the previous week it was good to see that the game is bigger than any player. To see those two teams come out and just go at it like that - it was incredible."

He was pleased he wasn't out there from a physical point of view. The game is harder now than ever, way tougher and faster than it was when he started as a prodigious talent from West Sydney in 1989.

"The seasons are harder, the pre-season is tougher and longer. I'm stiff and sore for two days after a game, the hamstring, the lower back. You just have to manage that, stay fit. You have to train a lot harder now than you did."

He has no trouble finding the commitment needed to perform at the top level, getting that drive from the young players at the club.

"I'm lucky that I'm finishing my career in a motivated team. They're good young players, they want to succeed, they want to go places. That gives me some drive because I don't want to let them down.

"I'm captain so of course there's an example to set. I get a buzz out of watching them achieve rep honours [five Roosters in NSW] and I take a bit of glory from that because I know I've helped in a small way."

Fittler's wife gave birth to their first child, Demi, last year and he admits family life has mellowed him.

Nothing has changed in his preparation, it's more a shift in his thinking and actions afterwards.

"It takes a bit of the focus off football. Before, that's all I did. Now, when I get home after a game, it takes some of the gloss off a win and it takes some of the pain out of a loss. The door closes and I'm in my world, football is somewhere else."

It's a big change from the unconscious drunk dragged off an inner-city traffic island by police in the early hours of the morning following a Roosters team night. He was captain then, too, and in the Australian team.

The police described him as the most drunk person they'd ever seen, and that's saying something for cops in inner-city Glebe.

The big drinking days are over now. It doesn't help with the fitness, nor the soreness. He didn't feel any need to step in to advise Craig Wing and Anthony Minichiello, the two Roosters players suspended by their club after misdemeanours while in the Origin camp.

"They're getting guidance from the club and their family. They're both intelligent kids - the smart ones learn from these things. I'm sure they won't repeat."

Fittler has no idea what he will do in life after football. At age 31 he has no qualifications for anything else. "I'm hoping for a role at the club. I'll have to find something because I'm not that great at relaxing."

This Sunday, he plans to run the big Warriors around Aussie Stadium with his kicking game. "It's nice if you can do that. But a lot more goes into it."

He expects a physical but flowing game.

"They're big, mobile and athletic. They're a classy side, any day now they'll turn and put a heap of points on someone."

It was Fittler who turned the game against the Warriors in the 2002 grand final, engineering a last-quarter points blitz that broke a 27-year premiership drought for the proud foundation club. They lead the competition with 18 points from 11 games.

"We've had a lot of injuries but we're still improving our play. Things feel right."

The five Roosters Origin players would be jaded, he agreed, but the interstate series would also provide lift for them. "You learn a lot, you become a better footballer, especially mentally."

If any measure of Fittler's personal form were needed it came in round seven against the Dragons when he ran from 30m out, beat two players in the line, stepped the fullback and scored under the posts to break the deadlock and win. He's still got it.

Brad Fittler

Born February 5, 1972

Raised Cambridge Park

Career:

Penrith 1989-1995, debut R21 August 1989, 129 games, 1991 premiership title.

Roosters 1996-2004. 191 games, 2002 premiership title.

Sydney City team 1990, City Origin 1991-1997. 29 games NSW Origin 1990-2001.

34 tests for the Kangaroos 1991-2001, 3 tours of England 1990, 1994, 2001-2003, played 26 games for 12 tries, made 402 tackles and 19 line-breaks.

2004 played 11 games.

Career scoring 310 games, 112 tries, 12 goals, 9 field goals, 481 points.


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