200 of the best

On the weekend, something pretty impressive (well to me anyway) happened. Paul Gallen played his 200th first grade game for the Cronulla Sharks. While some (read; most) of you won't care and/or like this post, that's your problem. He is a great player. He is a throw back to when the game was a lot simpler, and some say, a lot tougher. He's also loyal, which is very rare in the game these days. There have been so many great Sharks players, like Steve Rogers and Andrew Ettingshausen, but Paul Gallen is my favourite player of the last decade, if not all time.

When I sit around and discuss football (Rugby League) with my grand father, father in law and uncles, they talk about 'yesterdays heroes' like Bob McCarthy, John Sattler, Terry Randall and more recent guys like Ray Price, Steve Roach, Les Davidson, Paul Harrogan or Gordon Tallis. Guys who played the game like it should be played. Hard and tough. No nonsense guys.

When the time comes to talk football with my kids, my equivalent will be Paul Gallen. And in my opinion, there will be many more people who will have the same discussions with their kids.

People will talk about his performance in Game 2 of the 2011 State of Origin series for years to come. It was simply incredible. 'Gal' is a lock or a back rower, yet in this match he was picked as a front rower. It was a big ask. And here is what some of the NSW forwards of yesteryear had to say:

Now for those of you who don't follow rugby league (and weren't following me on Twitter that night) here are his stats for that match:

Game time: 80 minutes.
Hit-ups: 27 for 211 metres
Tackles: 31
Offloads: 3

INCREDIBLE! But even more so when you compare it to his club averages for the season:

Hit-ups: 21.45 for 183.5m
Tackles: 25.8
Offloads: 2.4

To put in that performance in the toughest arena in professional sport, in a foreign position, just cannot be put into words.

But as a Sharks fan, I have been lucky to have seen plenty of performances like that. Stuff like this against the Dragqueens in Rd 2 this year:

Or the efforts for the Kangaroos:

So I can safely say, that it was an honour that I in attendance for his 200th game at Shark Park on Saturday night against the Tigers, and I will proudly tell me kids and grand kids that I got to see this champion play in person.

Congratulations Gal on a mighty career so far. And I hope you have more achievements to come your way!