Watch Yvonne Sampson go Face to Face with Broncos and All Blacks legend Brad Thorn on Fox League at 7:30pm AEDT on Tuesday!
Dual international Brad Thorn says he could have potentially skipped his storied chapter in rugby league altogether – including premierships with the Broncos, State of Origin appearances and Australian Tests – were it not for the influence of Wayne Bennett.
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In a new Face-to-Face interview with Yvonne Sampson that airs on Tuesday, the Brisbane Broncos legend-turned New Zealand All Black recalls an encounter with Bennett at the age of 13 – at a time when he was considering a switch to Australian Rules.
“As a 13-year-old I actually gave up rugby league to pursue AFL,” Thorn remembers. “Anyway, my league team – one of the kids there won this thing where you get to go train at the Broncos for a weekend. So I went along and that was my first meeting with Wayne.
“Wayne talked to me, because I was six foot tall and I could kick. He got me to show the group this kicking exercise.
“He said ‘Brad, I just want you to run towards me and chip over me’. I’d try to chip over him and catch it and after it he goes ‘how’s your footy going son?’. I actually said ‘I’m going to play Australian Rules, I’m going to pursue it’. He goes ‘I think you should come back to league mate’.”
Bennett would go onto sign Thorn as a full-time Bronco a few years later. He debuted for the club at the age of 19, winning premierships, and later, Origin series and much more.
Thorn spent his early years in New Zealand in ‘humble beginnings’ before moving to Australia for better opportunities.
He took to rugby league a little slower than other kids his age, recalling that the skill was definitely there but the work ethic was not. Thorn paid tribute to his late father, Lindsay Thorn, for inspiring him to really make something of himself as a player and leader.
“As I went through the teenage years, I played rugby league and I had ability and I had talent but it was getting to a time where kids start to push through. When they take things seriously. I wasn’t pushing through,” Thorn said.
“I had the potential to do that, I wasn’t fit enough and I wasn’t making the rep teams.
“We’d just driven all the way to the Gold Coast where a game was. Silent trip home. Got home in the kitchen and Dad fronted me and just said point blank: ‘you don’t have it, you’re not fit enough, I’ve had enough’.
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“There’s a run that I do and I want you to do the run. I’m not asking you, I’m telling you. If you don’t do that run, I’m not giving you a lift anywhere any more. I’ve had enough’.
“I did that run the following week. I was halfway through and I remember the hairs on the back of my neck were up. I just felt really good. People have a ‘click’ moment in their life where their life turns or changes. It was that sort of moment.
“All of a sudden talent got backed up with some work ethic. I was a very different animal after that.
“The biggest thing was just the mindset. Where the mind goes, the body follows. I’m so grateful that my father – I only had him for another three years after that, he passed when I was 19 – stepped up as a father should and he found a way to help me to realise what I had.”
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Thorn’s sporting story is legendary, and unlikely to be replicated. After seven seasons at the Broncos, he went onto represent the Australia in rugby league, before returning to his country of birth years later to ultimately represent the New Zealand All Blacks in rugby union at the highest level.
“It’s been a crazy ride. I used to sit down the side of the wall of our house as a kid with our dog and have all these thoughts and dreams,” Thorn told Sampson.
“I could never have dreamed how things played out
“I haven’t made it easy, because I’m from New Zealand and I played in Australia. And rugby league and rugby union – I’ve done all the things that lead to people not being so keen on you but somehow I’ve just been honest and given it my all.”
Thorn revealed that Bennett was instrumental in his highly publicised move from rugby league to rugby union, even making introductions to get him a start at the Crusaders.
He would later return to the Broncos in 2003 and collect another premiership.
Watch Yvonne Sampson go Face to Face with Broncos and All Blacks legend Brad Thorn on Fox League at 7:30pm AEDT on Tuesday!
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