Rugby league: Pressure mounts on Fittler

By PETER JESSUP

It is a fine line sports stars draw when deciding when to retire - stick around long enough and they are sure to be ignominiously dropped, as new Kiwi coach Gary Freeman well knows.

But announcing retirement plans too early can also come back to bite, as Kangaroo captain Brad Fittler has found after declaring that 2001 would be his last State of Origin series, then getting thrashed in it.

Fittler was gun-shy yesterday when asked whether he would regret calling an end to his test career after tomorrow night's match against the Kiwis should he be unable to lift the Kangaroos to victory.

Had he put pressure on himself by making the call?

"Regardless of what happens, the last result will be the result," he said as he walked away, straight from the Herald into a television crew who asked essentially the same question.

"I'm not getting into that," he said as he turned and walked away again.

Clearly, he has put himself under pressure.

The Kangaroos trained twice at Rugby League Park in Wellington yesterday, and the fact that they dropped no balls served as a warning, as if one were needed.

"It's always easy to look good when no one is in front of you," was coach Chris Anderson's laconic call on it.

The Australians are injury-free.

The Kiwis trained at the Basin Reserve, except for David Vaeliki, who has a right knee strain but has been cleared to play.

Freeman has been upbeat all week, confident he has a side with the ability to do the job.

Tomorrow's test is a big one for Freeman, New Zealand's most-capped player (46). His 19 consecutive tests as captain is also a record.

He was a fiery player, with ill-discipline costing him at times. In his last game on Kiwi soil, for the Parramatta Eels in 1996, he was sent off to the refrain Hit the Road, Jack after repeat warnings for holding down in the tackle.

At the 1995 World Cup in England, Freeman hit a low point after coach Frank Endacott did the unenviable job of telling a great player there was a young guy who was better.

The Kiwis had beaten Papua New Guinea 22-6 in their quarter-final, with Freeman at hooker after Syd Eru was suspended. When Endacott read out the team to face Australia in the semifinal at Huddersfield, Gene Ngamu, Stacey Jones and Henry Paul filled any holes formerly for "the Whizz."

At training that day, Freeman stayed on the bus, talking on his mobile phone. Matthew Ridge, in his book Take No Prisoners, describes the scene: "We see him spitting the dummy, but it hasn't just gone 10 metres, it's gone the length of the flippin' football field, and you can imagine how that makes guys like Gene Ngamu, Stacey Jones and Henry Paul feel."

Freeman had let himself down badly and would regret it, Ridge said. "It was not a fitting way for his great career to wind down."

It is obviously not what Freeman would want from any of his Kiwis.

But he has mellowed, declaring that the main thing he wants from his players is that they enjoy themselves.

His job with Fox TV has taught him what to say, when, and how to say it more diplomatically than he might have done in the past.

He is enjoying coaching, having reached a job he aspired to once the playing stopped after 350 first-grade games in New Zealand, Australia and England.

Coaching his replacement, Jones, was a pleasure, he said. "He's a quality player, easy to work with."

But Freeman has not mellowed that much.

"I hated losing and I still do," he said. "The intensity is very high when you're out there. There will be no second chances against Australia. We can't afford mistakes.

"And it's no use coming off the field saying we could have done this and we could have done that."

Rugby league was a mental battle, he said. "We're all blessed with different skills, strength, speed or whatever, but it's the mental ability to push yourself that little bit further that counts."

Tomorrow night's test will probably be the 20th and last for rugby-bound Wendell Sailor and the big Kangaroo wing is desperate for a win, declaring: "The last game is what people will remember you by, regardless of what went before it."