The happiest child in Brisbane in the 1980s would have been a Wynnum kid.
Craig Greenhill got to live the dream at the bayside and then got to play for his beloved Seagulls.
Greenhill then took his old school tough forward show on the road to the Sharks and Panthers with Origin chucked in there too.
Craig Greenhill Q&A
Wynnum in the 1980s would have been like Disneyland for a kid?
I was as Wynnum as you could get, my dad and uncles all played for Wynnum and the only thing I ever wanted to do was play for Wynnum. I lived in the area, went to school in the area and all my best mates played for Wynnum. I played in a schoolboy side with Jeff Wittenberg, Paul Green, Clayton Maher, Danny Grimley.
Who was your favourite Wynnum player growing up?
We were pretty spoilt in Wynnum to watch that team, to be honest it seemed pretty far away to think of playing for Wynnum. I loved watching Terry Butler. Later on in 1989 I remember Gavin Allen playing at the Seagulls too and I really liked watching him play.
Can you remember your debut?
Wynnum was broke still and they had to promote a lot of younger players because they’re cheap so a lot of my age group were promoted early and we got to play A grade coming off the bench or after playing Colts, I remember Round 1 we played Logan and lost in 1992 and then I remember we played Easts and probably the first time I had to play against Paul Green. After Richo and Langy gave him $5 to get him to the Tigers. We made finals in 1992 and got beaten by Norths at Lang Park 18-12.
How did the Sharks get you?
A mate of mine read in the Courier-Mail that Arthur Beetson was looking for forwards for the Sharks so I wrote him a letter asking for a chance at the Sharks. I was at work one day and the phone rings and they say it’s Arthur Beetson, I assumed of course it was Steve Plath who was always doing things like ringing up and pretending to be a journalist so I answered 'good one Plathy' and hung up. I actually swore. The phone rang again and they said to ring this number, so I rang it and it was the Cronulla Sharks so I have asked to speak to Arthur and they said: 'Are you Craig Greenhill?'. Yes, put me straight through. Arthur said I could come down for a trial game, I went down played 10 minutes and Arthur said you’re a Shark now. So my first contact with Arthur was swearing at him.
Sharks had Queensland royalty John Lang from 1994 - how did you find John Lang?
John Lang was very good, different to Arthur Beetson. Lang was very good at breaking it down for you and making sure you understand your role while Arthur was very good technically and very good at skills. He had all these drills and little games he played to improve your skills.
Favourite Wynnum team mate?
Paul Green and Adam Maher. We played our whole lives together.
How did you find out you were going to play for Queensland?
Bit different to now, I was walking past the TV and the news was on and they were announcing the team, I have stopped and had a look and got down to number 17 and Craig Greenhill is written down. I remember my two best mates Paul Green and Adam Maher pulled up to my house not long after with a carton of beer and we celebrated me being picked for Origin.
Who was your roommate in Origin?
First camp, Game 1 was Billy Moore, then Tony Hearn and Brad Thorn. Tony Hearn is the hairiest man ever and Brad Thorn is just massive. I felt fat around Thorny.
What was the highlight of the camp?
Probably two things that stand out, Choppy was the manager and he gave me a hug, and Tosser welcomed me to camp. I remember Brad Thorn saying he hated New South Wales because they always had better tracksuits when he was a kid trying to make rep sides.
You straddled two eras of professionalism - what was the difference?
I always think the big difference was rehab, I went from trying to fit in physio after work or at 8:30pm after training to be able to do rehab at 9am and I think that would have got players back from injury one or two weeks earlier.
