Inglis is a freak and was compared to Buddy Franklin in the article.
It got me to thinking about which of my teammates would have been good in other sports.
Blacky is one who comes to mind – he would have been the perfect half-back or five-eighth at rugby league. Peripheral vision is critical to those blokes and they need to be quick decision-makers. Blacky is probably the best in the competition at that.
Charmo was a pretty good swimmer as a young bloke from all reports, but you would have thought he would have made a good rugby union second rower. With his sort of height, you’d think he would be pretty much unbeatable at the line-outs.
Dan Merrett played rugby league as a primary school kid and our gain is their loss.
Big Dan would be the perfect front rower. He could quite easily bump up to 115kg because he doesn’t have an ounce of fat on him at the moment.
He has got this brute power and is the fastest bloke at the club over 20 metres. He’s as an explosive athlete as I have seen. The good news for us, he is only going to get better and better.
Ash McGrath loves his gridiron and I think he wrote earlier on in one of his columns that he’d be happy to have a crack at it. He could probably play as a running back but I reckon he would make a better full-back at rugby league.
He’s got good speed and is a great tackler. He’s a very good crumbing forward, so he would be courageous standing under the high ball too.
Jared Brennan is one who stands out for rugby league. He loves his league too. He’s a bit of a utility at footy and you would think he could play a number of roles on a rugby league field.
As for me, I loved playing my cricket as a fast bowler. It’s the only other sport I played away from footy.
I do admit to having a few back injuries as a young fella – it is a pretty tough gig that fast bowling.
If I was born up here, I reckon I wouldn’t have minded having a go at rugby league.
The bloke who springs to mind as the one who could have had a big impact at another sport is Vossy. He had that perfect combination of power and skill and would have been suited to league. He was very smart as well.
Out of all the guys I have played with, he would have been the most suited, mentally and physically.
Speaking of mental and physical, it’s great to be back home at the Gabba for a game this weekend, and for the next few weeks as we’ve been away for a while.
There’s no doubt we’re at a crunch point in time for us.
We can build a strong base over the three games against teams around us on the ladder, and all at home.
They will really tell us the story - if we’re successful over the next three weeks it is going to be pretty exciting, but if we struggle then it will indicate we are not up to the mark.
The exciting part is that for the first time in the last few years we have close to our best 22 available. The medicos have done a terrific job to get most of the boys back out on the track.
I’ve always been confident that we’ve got the talent but the biggest hurdle over the last three years has been getting everyone out there.
One of the most important things is that we’re looking to get some real consistency into our game with our use of the ball. Our tackling has been tremendous all season, but we need consistency in the way we use it, both in the midfield and with our shots at goal.
