Harry Grant has gained two State of Origin sequence, picked up a World Cup trophy, and change into one of many best hookers within the sport – and all that regardless of enjoying simply 52 NRL video games to this point.
It’s been a outstanding journey for the Rockhampton-born rake.
“It’s been a bit of a whirlwind, it doesn’t seem real,” he tells Fox League’s Face-to-Face on tonight’s episode (7.30pm AEDT).
Watch Harry Grant be a part of Jake Duke on Face-to-Face on Foxtel and Kayo at 7.30pm AEDT.
This season shapes as a decisive one in his profession. Having been a part of the Storm’s bevy of riches in recent times – the nice Cameron Smith, in addition to Brandon (Smith) all battling for the No.9 jersey – Grant now has to shoulder all of the duty of the place.
“It’s been very fortunate and lucky for me and Brandon (Smith) to come through the way we did, learning off Cameron,” he says. “For me now it’s just exciting to challenge myself and keep myself on the park and in games.”
But the Queensland native reveals his journey might have been very completely different had his father instructed him about a suggestion from the Broncos to affix the junior set-up as a teen.
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Grant, who started his league journey with the Yeppoon Seagulls, had been a promising younger half earlier than a pair of devastating well being crises saved him out of the sport and practically price him his life.
He tells Face-to-Face: “I had a staph infection (Staphylococcus) in my shoulder which was pretty bad. I had about a year out, I had three surgeries on it. That was pretty grim at that time.
“I came back, I played a game and I broke my leg, a compound fracture. So I had probably two-and-a-half years out of footy, (age) 13, 14, 15.”
So severe was the shoulder an infection that docs as soon as instructed his mother and father he seemingly wouldn’t make it by means of the evening.
“I was close to brown bread,” he jokes. “They just said if I wasn’t so fit I probably would have been brown bread. I was 12, I was oblivious to what was going on.”
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When he returned, he was shifted from halves to hooker in his college group, one thing he concedes he struggled with: “I didn’t really like it, I didn’t know what I was doing!”
But quickly afterwards the Broncos got here calling – solely Grant didn’t discover out.
“Early days I was always in the Broncos academy growing up. They had everyone, they had any kid in Queensland!
“I came back (from illness and injury), I was playing a little bit. I was playing school footy. They called dad up and said there was potential for something more – but not after school, just in 16s and 17s.
“Dad didn’t tell me! I would have signed in a heartbeat, I loved the Broncos growing up! He told me later on: ‘You were 16, 17, you didn’t need it.’ I look back and it was probably a smart move.
“He just said: ‘It wasn’t going to do you any favours, in a way’.
“I didn’t know, I was just playing footy, striving to get to that point!”
“Then the Storm came when I was 17, going out of school. That was something that I jumped to.”
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While Grant reveals he would fortunately have signed for the Brisbane group he supported as a teen, he has no regrets about ending up in Melbourne.
“I would have jumped there. They had a lot of good players on their books too, they always get the cream of the crop in Queensland. I think it was probably a smart decision for me to pick the Storm – not that I had many options.”
Grant’s horrible staph an infection and the damaged leg was a horrible pair of setbacks, however the 25-year-old is philosophical concerning the impression it had on his life.
“There’s a lot of negatives. I had two and a half years out, that’s so negative. But there’s a bigger positive to come from it – that’s playing dummy half. If I wasn’t playing dummy half I probably wouldn’t be playing NRL, or Origins or World Cups, I probably wouldn’t achieve that. It’s pretty cool.”
Watch Harry Grant be a part of Jake Duke on Face-to-Face on Fox League (Ch. 501) and Kayo at 7.30pm AEDT.
Source: www.foxsports.com.au