League: Turner takes long road to footie future

Glen Turner always wanted to be a professional league player.

He left Christchurch at age 19, three-quarters of the way through a carpentry apprenticeship, on the promise of a start for a lower-grade club at Wollongong south of Sydney.

Five years later and Turner has finally cracked it. He puts that down to nothing but solid hard work.

He comes to Ericsson Stadium with the Storm on Sunday for a game the Warriors must win if they are to keep their playoff hopes alive.

Turner has played them before. It's not a daunting experience. He is looking to play well because he is off-contract at the Storm and yet to be offered a deal by the club.

He has enjoyed Melbourne, where the team are tight in a town where they face few distractions because players take a big back seat to those from the AFL.

"There's not much focus on us, which is not good from the club's point of view, but it allows us to concentrate on football."

Turner went to the Wests club at Wollongong in 1999 as arranged through a contact of development officer Jeff Whittaker. That year he was spotted by a talent scout for the Storm, signed to a development contract and sent to the Storm's feeder club, Brisbane Norths.

Turner spent the next few years moving up and down between Brisbane and Melbourne after making his NRL debut in round 14, 2000.

But since then he has racked up just 45 games. He played 10 last year in a season punctuated by injury but this year he has played 12 games already, impressing and moving up from the bench to a start.

He works hard in the off-season, he says, and does at least two "extras" sessions each week to keep his fitness and strength at peak.

He feels he's deserved his place and is hoping to secure it.

Asked what he considers the strengths of his game, he defers, not wanting to blow his own trumpet.

"I consider myself a hard worker," he says again.

Turner has been running wide of the ruck this year and with Kiwi David Kidwell doing the same, they are a damaging attacking option that the Storm's faster game-breakers have fed from.

"I'm enjoying my football. It's been a good year for us so far," he says, enjoying some of the spectacular tries scored by the likes of Billy Slater.

In his spare time there's computer and small-business courses as arranged by the club, otherwise golf and learning to surf at Torquay down the coast. He lives in a flat in Richmond with girlfriend Angela, whom he met in Wollongong.

If the Storm don't want him, Turner is still determined to follow the dream of playing for pay.

Brother Marty, 24, had the same aim and is now at Oldham in England and hoping to impress a Super League scout.

"It runs in the family," Glen says. Dad Rob, a Lyttelton wharfie, also played for Linwood.

"I always wanted to try my luck, all through the grades at Linwood. I'm glad I've had the chance," Turner says.

The Storm have so far failed to reach agreement with halfback Matt Orford and he is said to be a target of cashed-up South Sydney.

Souths are said to be ready and waiting for the June 30 anti-tampering deadline to pass before offering Bulldogs lock/five-eighth Braith Anasta A$4 million ($4.3 million) for a five-year term and Orford A$500,000 a season.

The Newcastle club is in crisis, with suggestions that players' pay may be at risk. The club has no major naming-rights sponsor and lost other backers after the drunken escapade in pre-season.

Captain Andrew Johns and player representatives Matt Gidley and Clint Newton will meet Newcastle chief executive Michael Searle today to discuss the club's future.

 

Glen Turner

Born: Christchurch February 22, 1979
Weight/height: 92kg 184cm
Position: lock/second-rower
Junior club: Linwood
Wests Wollongong 1999, Brisbane Norths/Storm 2000-2005
NRL debut: round 14, 2000 v Eels at Parramatta
45 games for the Storm, 12 in 2005