The high school conversation that turned a promising five-eighth into the game’s greatest No 9.
Via Brent Read/The Australian.
Wayne Watson lives a quiet life these days on a 50-acre plot in Childers, a Queensland town about 50 kilometres south of Bundaberg that lays claim to being the southern gateway to the Great Barrier Reef.
The 67-year-old is happy spending his time pottering around the property he shares with his wife as well as an assortment of kangaroos, chickens and local wildlife.
The man who first introduced future Immortal Cameron Smith to the game of rugby league might have watched the Melbourne Storm and his star pupil play once this year, twice at best. “I had a few boys that went all the way,” Watson tells The Weekend Australian.
“I have a bit of pride in it of course, but nothing that ever makes my day. All I was doing back in those days was teaching them the ground rules of football.
“It wasn’t coaching, it was teaching. They were just learning. Even when he (Smith) was a lad, he was one of those hundred percenters.
