Hamilton: The 'little general' guiding Bears

As Burleigh Bears coach Luke Burt puts it, halfback Guy Hamilton is "the little general" at the centre of the Bears' success this season.

Hamilton is okay with the nickname – it’s better than everything else he is called at training, he says.

“I’m just very football addicted,” Hamilton said.

“I live and breathe it… if I'm not playing it, I’m watching it. If I’m not watching it, I’m studying it by re-watching games.

“I’m a pretty big nerd when it comes to my footy.”

The Bears finished as minor premiers and put in a huge performance against Central Queensland Capras in the first week of finals to earn the week off.

They will take on Wynnum Manly Seagulls at UAA Park on Saturday. It’s a challenge Burt is confident Hamilton – and the rest of the team – will rise to.

“Guy has taken on a real leadership role in the group,” Burt said.

“He’s our little general… he steers the boys around the park.

“But more importantly this year I think he’s taken his defence to another level. He’s defended really well. In that position, he’s obviously targeted because they want to wear him out so he’s tired. In attack, he has been sensational.”

The 28-year-old, who did pre-season with the Sydney Roosters, said there was nothing like playing finals footy.

“This is the time of the year everyone wants to be playing and the best teams are still hanging around,” Hamilton said.

Hamilton said the team performed well in their Finals Week 1 clash, but there was always room for improvement.

“We played pretty well… we had a bit of a slow first half but we got in our groove into the second half,” Hamilton said.

“It was good to finish with a few tries and really get confidence up.

“We lost the first game last year and then had to go the long route. We have a few older boys in our team so being able to have the week off was a good thing… being able to freshen the bodies up, so we go into this week with no excuses.”

Hamilton, who has a small property maintenance business, said Wynnum Manly would be tough to beat.

“They’re a good side, they’ve been a good side all year… especially when they get their affiliate players back. We know this week they're going to be very strong and very competitive,” Hamilton said.

“We’ve just got to really worry about ourselves. What we've done in the last three months… we just need to focus on ourselves and not stress too much on what they can do, rather what we can do. We just need to stick to that. Hopefully we can get the job done.”

Hamilton said it had been a massive year for him.

“Pre-season at the Roosters was really hard, obviously… they’re a pretty established club, the Roosters… they're very strong, they train very hard and they're a very strong team,” he said.

“It was pretty cool just to rub shoulders with them and I definitely learned a lot about myself and my game… I just really wanted to take those attributes I learned, bring them back to Burleigh and I think I’ve done that this year.”

The biggest takeaways, Hamilton said, were more about his off-field habits including the importance of recovery and preparation. All in the aim of being more consistent.

“I was always someone that just went out on a weekend and just didn't worry about anything else and just played,” Hamilton said.

“But this year I worried a bit more about my recovery and my preparation and little things like that to make sure that I'm 100 per cent ready to go on game day and not just playing the 80 minutes.

“Now I prepare for it for the whole week, for that 80 minutes.

“And on-field, there was a few mistakes in my game and I needed to work on my defence, which I have worked to fix up and be the half that I want to be, to be consistent.

“That’s probably one word that I wanted to try and be this year. I feel like I've been pretty consistent and dominated when I had to. Then as a group, the same thing… we just really wanted to be consistent.

“Another thing in the last month or two, has been enjoyment.  I think when we're happy and we're really enjoying it…enjoying the contest and competing in the contest, I think we’re at out best as a club, as a group.”

Hamilton said to make the grand final would mean the world to the group.

“We’ve been together as a group for a few years now and been slowly working towards it,” Hamilton said.

“Last year it was really disappointing to go down one game short and the year before we went down one game short… so it's been a couple of years for the group… I think we really deserve to be there.

“Doesn't mean we'll get there, but we know we deserve to be there.

“So we just have to go out there and get the job done. I lost the grand final in 2017 at the Falcons so I'm really working to go into a grand final and redeem myself if I get the opportunity… to go into a grand final and win.”

Hamilton said while he still had dreams to “take it to the next level”, he loved the Bears and was very content where he was.

“It’s everyone's dream, it has been my dream since I was about five, to play NRL,” he said.

“But not everyone gets that opportunity. At the moment I'm really content playing with a really good group of blokes and just trying to dominate Cup.

“I feel like I've been doing that now for the last few years and, if I get that call, get that opportunity, I'd 100 per cent jump at it. But if not, I'm happy and content to play footy with my mates and dominate at this level.”

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