Sign up now!!!<\/a><\/p>\nWalsh shows his class to set up try | 00:21<\/p>\n
\u201cThe first time I met Wayne was at Ipswich Reserve Oval. He was sitting up there on the hill, just there watching the game, watching the day go by. He asked for me to go over and talk to him that day and at that point in time, that was my first touch point with him. But it\u2019s one I\u2019ll never forget,\u201d said Lockyer.<\/p>\n
Bennett would go onto become a pivotal figure in Lockyer\u2019s career, giving him his debut at the Broncos, where the champion fullback-turned-five-eighth would make all 355 of his NRL appearances.<\/p>\n
Asked whether he would reach the same lofty heights without Wayne\u2019s influence, Lockyer was unequivocal: \u201cNo way,\u201d he said. \u201cWayne teaches you the game but he teaches you more about life. I think for a lot of players that have come through under Wayne, they would all say the same thing \u2013 that to get longevity and performance out of your career for a long amount of time, you need a great mentor for that.<\/p>\n
\u201cIf you come to the Broncos and you are driven, and you\u2019ve got someone like Wayne as your coach, then you\u2019ll get the best out of yourself.\u201d<\/p>\n
If Bennett was the guiding hand in Lockyer\u2019s extensive career, then Queensland legend Wally Lewis could be considered the on-field architect. Lockyer says like many Queensland kids of that era, he closely studied Lewis on the field \u2013 and took away some key learnings.<\/p>\n
\u201cI think staying calm under pressure but also wanting the football when the game was on the line,\u201d Lockyer said of Lewis\u2019 biggest lessons. \u201cWhen you\u2019ve got a lot of chaos going on, the best way to let go of the chaos is calm.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe other thing I noticed about Wally is he was always looking at the defensive line. Not every player did that but Wally was always looking to see where there was an opportunity.\u201d<\/p>\n
‘A father figure’ Foxx credits Bellamy | 00:34<\/p>\n
Lockyer\u2019s story is the stuff of legend, and is widely tipped to culminate with the 49-year-old being inducted as an NRL immortal in due course.<\/p>\n
However, things may have panned out differently had Lockyer pursued a mid-career switch to the AFL. A call from his long-serving manager George Mimis revealed that AFL club Essendon had expressed interest in Lockyer\u2019s services.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhen the question came to me \u2018is there any interest?\u2019, I had to think about it for a bit because it was always a dream as a 7 or 8-year-old to go and play at the highest level in AFL,\u201d Lockyer said, before conceding the odds would be stacked heavily against him.<\/p>\n
Nowadays, Lockyer is instantly recognisable from his gravelly voice, the result of an on-field injury sustained in 1999. After retirement, Lockyer said he considered surgery to rectify the issue, but was ultimately talked out of it.<\/p>\n
If anything, he considers his voice a badge of honour.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe played the North Sydney Bears and it happened at North Sydney Oval. I just played with it until I finished in 2011. It did impact me on the field a bit because literally no-one could hear me,\u201d Lockyer said.<\/p>\n
\u201cAt the end of my career I did look into getting it fixed. There was a bit to it and there were no guarantees. As a lot of people mentioned, they did say \u2018well it is your trademark\u2019. There is that YouTube clip that you see my voice before and after \u2013 it\u2019s a fair change.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe game gave me a lot, without a doubt. And I think as time goes on you realise that more and more.\u201d<\/p>\n
Watch Yvonne Sampson go Face to Face with Broncos, Maroons and Kangaroos legend Darren Lockyer on Fox League at 7:30pm AEST on Tuesday!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Watch Yvonne Sampson go Face to Face with Broncos, Maroons and Kangaroos legend Darren Lockyer on Fox League…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":648640,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[568],"tags":[64,63,761,762,158,85],"class_list":["post-648639","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-nrl","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-national-rugby-league","tag-nationalrugbyleague","tag-nrl","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/648639","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=648639"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/648639\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/648640"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=648639"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=648639"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=648639"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
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