There are two things that stick in the memory about Wests Tigers legend Liam Fulton.
Both came up when we interviewed Fulton yesterday to discuss his appointment as coach of the Campbelltown City Kangaroos, who play in the Group Six competition.
One is the wholehearted effort Fulton put in every single time he pulled on the Wests Tigers jumper.
The backrower never shirked his duty and put in 100 per cent every time.
There’s no doubt he earned that 2005 premiership ring he collected when the Tigers walloped the Cowboys 32-16 in the grand final to win the NRL crown.
The work ethic is one of the things he will bring with him to the Kangaroos this season along with the coach’s clipboard.
“One thing I look at is laziness – I won’t accept laziness, like if you’re at marker and don’t shut the gate, don’t push up with your mate, that’s just lazy, anybody can do that,’’ Fulton says.
“And the other point is some of the greats I played with such as Robbie Farah and Benji Marshall, they had ability, but they also trained the hardest as well.
“I expect everyone to train really hard.’’
The second thing that people remember about Liam Fulton, other than that he’s a terrific club man, is that he was always a bit of the joker in the Wests Tigers pack.
He and one of his best mates in the forwards, Bryce “Gibbsy’’ Gibbs, would regularly pull practical jokes on each other or the other boys.
It’s fair to say that Fulton was the king joker and Gibbsy his apprentice during the Tigers years before and after premiership glory in 2005.
So, now that he’s in a serious role as a coach, will it be safe for his players to leave things around or should they watch their backs?
“No, I am serious now,’’ says Fulton.
[social_quote duplicate=”no” align=”default”]“There will be a bit of fun going on, but at the end of the day I suppose I’ll be firm with the boys.[/social_quote]
“I can’t be one of the boys, I can have a joke and that with them, but bonding is best when you’re winning and everyone comes to training and enjoy themselves,’’ he says.
Liam Fulton was born on August 8, 1984, so when he suddenly retired in the middle of the 2014 NRL season he was still only 29, very young by modern standards.
But having played 162 games with the club as well as a stint in the English Super League with the Huddersfield Giants, Fulton decided to end his career because he had suffered four concussions in six games during the 2014 season.
“I miss playing footy a little bit, but everything’s got to end sometime,’’ he says.
“I really miss the training; I actually like training – I just enjoyed being around the players and that at training, the mateship, it’s good fun, you train together, you go to lunch together.
“Now I’m an insurance broker I go to cafes and have coffee by myself and think, what am I doing?’’
Coaching never occurred to Fulton during his playing career.
And apart from doing a bit of personal training with a couple of talented young players trying to break into league rep teams, his coaching experience is, well, he doesn’t have any.
“I never ever thought about becoming a coach,’’ he says.
The Campbelltown Kangaroos approached him a couple of years ago to offer him the chance to coach, and this must have planted the seed in his mind.
When club director Alex Melville asked him again this year, Fulton’s circumstances had changed so he said yes this time around.
“When the opportunity arose to coach here at the Kangaroos, it kind of excited me to be able to give back to Campbelltown, which has always been great to me during my whole career,’’ says Fulton.
So, Mr Fulton, what sort of a coach do you think you will make?
“I think I’ll be right,’’ he shoots back.
“I suppose you can’t be one of the boys when you’re the coach. But so long as there is respect there, that’s the main thing.
“I look back at the assistant coaches I had like Toddy Payten and Steve Georgallis, who you could have a joke with, but when it came to coaching you had to listen to them and you were respectful, didn’t interrupt, did as you were told, and I suppose they are the kind of coaches you wanna play for as well.
“That’s how I want to approach coaching.’’
Did you pick up any tricks from Tim Sheens?
[social_quote duplicate=”no” align=”default”]“Thinking about coaching over the past couple of months and what I’m going to do, Sheensy was a very serious guy, quite different to how I would coach, but then again it’s a different level, Group Six to NRL,’’ Fulton replies.[/social_quote]
“You just can’t come here and flog the players – you’ve got to make it enjoyable.
“I suppose when you’re paid a lot of money to play NRL, whatever the coach says goes.
“These guys here I am going to make it enjoyable for them.
“Most of them have full time jobs and the last thing they need is to come to a place when they won’t enjoy themselves,’’ says Fulton.
The 2017 Group Six season doesn’t start until the first week in April, but Fulton is not wasting any time preparing for his inaugural season as a coach.
Training started yesterday at Fullwood Reserve, Claymore – after a media session with local journos and photographers.
Earlier in the day Fulton caught up with fellow Tigers ’05 forward John Skandalis.
“Skando’s a Campbelltown legend and he’s a busy guy, but he’s an NRL trainer so we had a bit of a chat about training and stuff,’’ explains Fulton.
The Kangaroos let some players go during the off season and recruited some new blood as well.
“Alex [Melville] and I have been taking players down to (major sponsor) Court Tavern, having a chat to them about what we will be doing in 2017,’’ says Fulton.
“I have looked at some old footage of the Kangaroos but I want to come here with an open mind,’’ he adds.
Fulton hails from Parramatta and still lives in the area, so you’d think he would have followed the Eels as a kid.
“Nah, I was a Canberra fan,’’ he says
I ask him why
“I don’t know – no idea,’’ he says.
I don’t think he’s joking.
