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<\/p>\nWatch Jake Duke go Face to Face with former Steelers, NSW and Test back Rod Wishart on Fox League at 7:30pm AEST on Tuesday!<\/p>\n
It\u2019s the simple brotherly phrase that underpinned much of Rod Wishart\u2019s incredible representative career: \u2018Go hard\u2019.<\/p>\n
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The Gerringong great has paid tribute to his late brother Derek Wishart, crediting him and his encouraging words for much of his success in club, Origin and Test arenas.<\/p>\n
Watch every game of every round of the Premiership Season LIVE with no ad-breaks during play on FOX LEAGUE, available on Kayo Sports | New to Kayo? Join now and get your first month for just $1.<\/a><\/p>\n In a wide-ranging Face to Face interview with Jake Duke airing on Fox League this Tuesday night, Wishart talks about the ongoing influence of Derek on his career after dying aged 27, as well as his famous quads, his beloved home town, plus representing his state and country.<\/p>\n \u201cI do look back and feel like in a lot of ways I overachieved to a point,\u201d Wishart reflected.<\/p>\n Wishart famously grew up in the South Coast town of Gerringong, about 40 minutes south of Wollongong, and was one of six children.<\/p>\n Rod\u2019s parents owned the Gerringong Chemist and the family lived in a small two bedroom apartment where he shared a bedroom with three brothers. <\/p>\n In his early years, his older brother Derek was a huge inspiration \u2013 and continued to be a big influence for Rod after dying suddenly following an asthma attack while playing touch football in nearby Jamberoo.<\/p>\n \u201cI always looked up to Derek and it was just a real tragedy,\u201d Wishart said.<\/p>\n \u201cHe was the one guy before a game who give me some advice. It wasn\u2019t anything over the top, he\u2019d always just say, \u2018Go hard\u2019. And I\u2019ve always taken that on: whatever you do, just don\u2019t leave anything in the tank.<\/p>\n \u201cI draw a lot of inspiration about that. From something so tragic you can try and turn it into something good.\u201d<\/p>\n Wishart didn\u2019t have to look far for inspiration growing up in Gerringong. He played all of his junior football with the local Gerringong Lions rugby league side, where Parramatta great (and fellow local) Mick Cronin was a coach.<\/p>\n Cronin imparted plenty of wisdom to an attentive Wishart during his formative years.<\/p>\n \u201cI\u2019m lucky enough to be brought up in a beautiful place like Gerringong, so close to Sydney but such a small little place. They all love their sport \u2013 cricket in summer, footy in winter \u2013 and I surfed all year round,\u201d Wishart said.<\/p>\n \u201cWhen Mick signed for Parramatta and played all those years at Parramatta, he was always in Gerringong. We always got to see him, and for a young kid like myself, it was always inspiring to hopefully follow in his footsteps. At that stage, I had no thoughts of playing for NSW or Australia or even prior to that, for an NRL club.\u201d<\/p>\n Mark bracing for ‘Brutal’ Origin debut | 01:43<\/p>\n Wishart debuted for the Illawarra Steelers in 1989 after fielding offers from the Balmain Tigers and now-defunct Gold Coast Chargers. He would play 154 first-grade games for the proud Illawarra side, as well as 22 caps for NSW and 17 games for the Kangaroos.<\/p>\n Wishart went onto become Illawarra\u2019s greatest try scorer and point scorer, before the Steelers were famously merged with the St George Dragons for the 1999 season \u2013 a chapter that he looks back on mostly favourably as the camaraderie between the two clubs improved.<\/p>\n That said, for many rugby league followers, it was the representative arenas where Wishart is best remembered. The 57-year-old fondly remembers playing under legendary Blues coaches including Jack Gibson and Phil Gould.<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s pretty surreal. Getting coached by Jack Gibson, his aura is undeniable. He doesn\u2019t say much but he was saying a lot,\u201d Wishart told Duke.<\/p>\n \u201cGus just made you feel so good about yourself… I can\u2019t repeat the way he does it, because he\u2019s just got a way about him.\u201d<\/p>\n The Wishart legacy continues to live on<\/a> through Rod\u2019s son Tyran Wishart, who debuted for the Melbourne Storm in 2022 and has amassed more than 90 NRL appearance of his own since<\/a>. Manly\u2019s Reuben Garrick is also intertwined in the Wishart lineage as Rod\u2019s son-in-law, after marrying his daughter Riley Wishart.<\/p>\n Rod was on-hand to present Tyran with his debut jersey in 2022 and remembered that it didn\u2019t take long for him to feel as though he \u2018belonged\u2019 in the NRL.<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s all about hard work, attitude and doing all the simple things right. The thing I\u2019m proud about is that he went through all the highs and lows and there was a few speed humps that we had to get through, a few hoops to jump through,\u201d Rod said.<\/p>\n \u201cOut of the blue Melbourne called and that was a bit of a revelation for him.\u201d<\/p>\n Of all his achievements, Wishart described representing Australia as \u2018the pinnacle\u2019. He would play 17 Tests for the Kangaroos, all under the tenure of Manly legend Bob Fulton.<\/p>\n \u201cI feel like I played my best football playing for Australia. In 1994 there was a Kangaroo tour and Australia got beaten in the first Test,\u201d Wishart said. <\/p>\n \u201cBozo felt like he needed to make a couple of changes and I was one of them. I didn\u2019t let him down, the team didn\u2019t let him down, and we went onto win the next two games.<\/p>\n \u201cI look back and I feel like playing for Australia is the pinnacle.\u201d<\/p>\n Luai: ‘The criticism was warranted’ | 00:35<\/p>\n Wishart\u2019s professional career finished with the St George Illawarra Dragons\u2019 grand final defeat to the Melbourne Storm in 1999.<\/p>\n Although clearly dejected in the immediate scenes after the loss, Wishart said he soon put the game behind him, and looked to life after football \u2013 with some thanks again to his brother.<\/p>\n \u201cUnfortunately it wasn\u2019t to be to win the grand final. We had our chances, no doubt about it,\u201d Wishart reflected.<\/p>\n \u201cIf you look at four or five different things that happen in the second half that changes the momentum, I can vouch for the fact there was things we could probably do that change that game around.<\/p>\n \u201cAs a general characteristic, I\u2019ve been able to get over hardship, put it all behind and look at the positives.<\/p>\n \u201cI\u2019d like to be remembered as player who played to the best of his ability, and actually went above and beyond what he thought he could do.<\/p>\n \u201cYou don\u2019t really know what you can do unless you show a bit of initiative and courage and do it yourself. Leave nothing in the tank.\u201d <\/p>\n Watch Jake Duke go Face to Face with former Steelers, NSW and Test back Rod Wishart on Fox League at 7:30pm AEST on Tuesday!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Watch Jake Duke go Face to Face with former Steelers, NSW and Test back Rod Wishart on Fox…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":737499,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[568],"tags":[64,63,761,762,158,85],"class_list":["post-737498","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\/737498","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=737498"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/737498\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/737499"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=737498"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=737498"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=737498"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}