Win And Wang: Kite Makes The Difference

Sydney Morning Herald

Monday October 6, 2008

Jacquelin Magnay

BRENT KITE loves youse all. "Youse" being his teammates, his family, and his wife.

Kite, the 27-year-old burly prop, was awarded the Clive Churchill Medal for the best player of the grand final last night, and celebrated with a speech thanking the thunderous support from the Maroon and White army and his teammates.

A thrilled Kite was presented with the prestigious medal by the Prime Minister, Kevin Rudd, and then, with his child in his arms, spoke the words made famous by Jeff Fenech.

But Kite's lasting deeds were on the field, not behind the microphone. He scored a second-half try to cement Manly's shellacking of Melbourne. It was the icing on the cake of a performance that featured inspirational line breaks. The Australian selectors, who nominated the man of the match, were obviously taken with Kite's running; he took the ball up 20 times to lead his side's hit-up statistics.

Critically, though, Kite made serious indentations in the Storm defence, attracting a huge gathering of defenders and allowing space for his colleagues to open up the Storm defence out wide.

Yet the Medal award must have been a close decision. Kite's forwards teammate Glenn Stewart made a stunning 38 tackles and 18 hit-ups, and the Manly man out wide, winger Michael Robertson, scored a hat-trick of tries to establish the Sea Eagles' dominance.

But selectors being selectors, and the game's foundations being built on the traditions of the big men, it was going to be difficult for a winger, even one as fast as Robertson, to usurp a front-rower.

Robertson scored three tries through the narrowest of gaps by the corner posts to cement his place in the hearts of the Manly fans, and he set up a try for the club's departing golden boy, Steve Menzies. Oh, the glory of it all. The hugs, the back-slaps, the tears of joy. Not like this time last year, when Robertson was caught on television in the Sea Eagles dressing room naked and performing what has been described as a "wang dance". But after yesterday's try-scoring spree, Robertson's infamous act has been usurped by memories more spectacular: the sight of him outstretched on a single blade of grass, flicking a ball back to "Beaver".

"It was nice for him to give me the ball," said Menzies, who noted that Robertson had been "awesome" for the team all year. "It is great to see what he can do, he was terrific." Menzies was equally effusive about Kite. He said Kite troubled the defence with his big runs throughout the 80 minutes.

After the match Kite said the Storm were not going to beat his team because emotionally the Sea Eagles were primed. He said the team had come together in the past month, hitting form at just the right time.

"They weren't going to beat us today; no one was going to beat us today," he said. "We hadn't put it together all season except for the past couple of weeks, which was fantastic."

But the prop, who moved to the Sea Eagles from St George Illawarra in 2005, also attributed the Sea Eagles' strong grand final preparation to Menzies, whom he said had helped keep a lid on the team. Kite's starring role last night will surely cement his place in the Australian World Cup side. He played in the Centenary Test in May but was controversially omitted from the Blues' State of Origin side.

© 2008 Sydney Morning Herald

Back to News Index | Back to Home