On Friday afternoon, Phil \u201cBuzz\u201d Rothfield was about to do the one thing he would never have dreamt of doing in 50 years. <\/p>\n
He was about to turn his phone off.<\/p>\n
Particularly odd being a Friday, where for as long as he\u2019s known, the weekend deadline was fast approaching for his must-read \u2018What\u2019s The Buzz\u2019\u2019 column for The Sunday Telegraph. <\/p>\n
There\u2019s still a chance for another exclusive. A funny spotted. A juicy shoosh. One more Saint. Another Sinner. <\/p>\n
Not anymore. <\/p>\n
So Buzz thought bugger it, I\u2019ll turn the phone off. <\/p>\n
That was, until we called. <\/p>\n
Buzz had been scrolling through the hundreds of text messages that had been pinging ever since he announced his shock retirement from News Corp Australia, his home since 1976, and so too, the farewell from his weekly appearances with Fox League\u2019s NRL 360, Triple M and The Big Sports Breakfast, last Thursday afternoon. <\/p>\n
\u201cYour kidding aren\u2019t ya? Not another story about me, surely?\u2019\u2019 Buzz said down the line.<\/p>\n
The journalist with the best contact book in Australian sports media loved nothing more than breaking the biggest stories.<\/p>\n
But tell him we\u2019re writing one more story about his illustrious career in journalism and he does what so many CEOs, sporting stars and celebrities tried, before eventually succumbing to the relentless and dogged pursuit of the master with his pad and pen.<\/p>\n
However, if there\u2019s one moment in time that Buzz is willing to explain, a career-defining story that he is prepared to share, if for no other reason but to honour one of his greatest mentors, it\u2019s the days following the passing of NRL Hall of Fame inductee, former colleague and chief rugby league writer Peter \u201cChippy\u201d Frilingos.<\/p>\n
It was the moment that changed Buzz Rothfield. <\/p>\n
A pallbearer at Frilingos\u2019 funeral following his devastating heart attack in 2004, Rothfield spent the next few weeks pondering how The Daily Telegraph were going to replace the most revered rugby league reporter in Sydney. <\/p>\n
He made a choice that would alter the landscape of how the game was covered forever. <\/p>\n
\u201cI don\u2019t want to say this disrespectfully to any of my past and present colleagues. But I thought we needed new leaders,\u2019\u2019 Buzz said. <\/p>\n
\u201cNo one will ever replace Chippy. But I saw that as my role to become the leader of the team and to try and do it as well as he did.<\/p>\n
\u201cI learned a lot from Chippy about longstanding relationships and more importantly, looking after the fans. We\u2019re not here for the clubs, we\u2019re here for the fans.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe only thing that ever mattered for me was keeping them informed and anything I heard, I wanted them to hear.<\/p>\n
\u201cThat was one of the things Chippy taught me. <\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019re just a pipeline from the game to the readers. <\/p>\n
\u201cI was writing league long before that (Chippy\u2019s passing), but I\u2019d never had that burden of being the main man, until then.\u2019\u2019<\/p>\n
A pioneer for the way rugby league reporters are now widely used beyond newspapers on TV panel shows and radio for their inside knowledge of stories, Buzz said it was imperative he cultivated Chippy\u2019s hard work. <\/p>\n
\u201cBack then, there were very few journos on television,\u201d Buzz said. <\/p>\n
\u201cWe were just hard-nosed rugby league reporters and Chippy became huge on radio, on TV on Fox with The Back Page and so I did everything that Chippy did.<\/p>\n
\u201cI wrote back pages, I wrote columns, I followed him into radio in the end and then followed him into the TV.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt was a huge thing. <\/p>\n
\u201cIt was special because of Bozo (Bob Fulton) and (Ray) Hadley, having worked with Chippy with the (2GB) Continuous Call Team and it was important in maintaining their relationship with the paper. <\/p>\n
\u201cIt was always going to be impossible to replace Chippy, but in a way I tried to keep up his worth ethic. He was seven-days-a-week rugby league.\u2019\u2019<\/p>\n
Buzz said in the hours leading up to his decision to retire from the media landscape, he had caught himself reflecting on Frilingos\u2019 impact. <\/p>\n
\u201cI have thought about him and Ian Heads, who was my first mentor and a wonderful help to me,\u2019\u2019 Buzz said. <\/p>\n
\u201cBut it would be embarrassing to put me in the same league as Chippy.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe was something else.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe thing is, when I think about these wonderful mentors, I also think how at the end of the day, I was a kid who was a school dropout who couldn\u2019t spell, who found something that he really loved and worked hard.<\/p>\n
\u201cEvery kid that finishes school I say to them, \u2018Don\u2019t worry about what a piece of paper says, if you go and work hard and show initiative, you can do anything with your life\u2019.\u2019\u2019<\/p>\n
As for the text messages, who has reached out, Buzz? <\/p>\n
\u201cMate, I\u2019ve been blown away by messages from good people in the game like Mal (Meninga) and Benji (Marshall).<\/p>\n
\u201cPeople like that, who I wasn\u2019t expecting.<\/p>\n
\u201cI told Benji to go and have a week in Fiji without some old bloke calling you out.<\/p>\n
\u201cI honestly have no idea how many there have been, there\u2019s hundreds. <\/p>\n
\u201cEven people like (Former Wallaby captain) John Eales and Richard Colless (former Swans chairman), who didn\u2019t talk to me for three years. <\/p>\n
\u201cRoosters coach Trent Robinson, Dessie Hasler, Ricky Stuart and Kenny Callandar, too. <\/p>\n
\u201cThere\u2019s been former rugby boss John O\u2019Neill, all the CEOs in the NRL, Nicho Hynes, Josh Addo-Carr. It\u2019s been unbelievable. <\/p>\n
\u201cEveryone except Gus (Phil Gould).\u2019\u2019<\/p>\n