Few who saw Benji Marshall run out for his first game as an NRL starter late in the 2003 season had the 18-year-old pegged as a survivor. A potential superstar, sure. A talent that could reach the highest echelons of the game, no doubt. A playmaker whose sublime skillset could make him as valuable to a coach as it is to the marketing team, absolutely.
But a survivor? No. In a sport as physically brutal and hard-edged as any in the world, the skinny kid with the long sideburns and the monster step did not fit the profile of someone who would still be playing at the highest level 19 seasons later.
He was astonishing in his first start after a cameo three weeks earlier in a 52-12 hammering of Newcastle. Wearing the No 18 jumper, the baby-faced Marshall lined up against a Brisbane Broncos team that was finals-bound and contained hardened veterans like Shane Webcke, Petero Civoniceva, Tonie Carroll and Andrew Gee. Somewhat coincidentally, considering where he has ended up 18 years later, the coach of that Broncos team was Wayne Bennett.
Benji showed no fear, the grand stage on which he stepped merely a canvas to showcase his artistic flair. He sizzled, elusive with the giant step for which he would be known, deft with the ball, as fast as a whippet, leading the Tigers to a shock 12-10 upset at Suncorp. It was a run on debut that left many in awe but few fancying this man would be playing nearly two decades later. Speed fades. So does effervescence. Sidesteps and flick passes are typically not built to last.
Few players have had the artistry of Marshall on a paddock and with the exception of Andrew Johns, few showed it so early in their career. A rugby league Rousseau who transcended the game with his majestic combination of skills, vision and creativity. He played like a street-corner three-card monte dealer moving on a personal hovercraft, scheming and floating on air.
This game, of course, reached its high watermark in 2005. Marshall, in what was his first full season as a starter, guided the Tigers to a remarkable late-season run and then the most unlikely of premierships. The enduring memory of that grand final is Benji’s flick pass to Pat Richards which all but secured the title and created a moment that has been replayed more than any other.
It made him transcendently popular, as beloved a figure as the game has seen in the NRL era. Adored by kids and admired by adults for both his brilliance and his exuberance, it is not overstating it to suggest he played a key role in moving the public consciousness of rugby league beyond the Super League carnage wreaked a decade earlier but still hanging over the game.
His star continued to rise but he would never again reach the heights of 2005. His best football came between 2009 and 2011. He won the golden boot in 2010 and the Dally M five-eighth of the year award in 2011. The Tigers reached the preliminary final in 2010 after Marshall got off his sickbed to lead the Tigers to an incredible win over the Raiders in Canberra before going down by a point to eventual premiers St George Illawarra.
His first run at the Tigers though did not end well. He was stiffed by the club. There was plenty of acrimony. It is often forgotten now, though, that by the end of the 2013 season Marshall, at 28, was thought to be washed as a player – or at least close to it. His game was not bringing results. The Tigers had become a basket case, not helped at all by the sacking of Tim Sheens. His career seemed to be winding down.
Briefly, it appeared over, when he stunned the NRL by defecting to Super Rugby. The affair was brief and he returned to rugby league and embarked on stints with St George Illawarra and Brisbane that should be credited with prolonging his career. He played just 13 games at the Broncos but it helped Marshall fully realise his longevity relied on his ability to change. At the behest of Bennett and in the embrace of a truly professional club for the first time in his career, he worked on his defence and his fitness and sublimated his ego.
Amongst fanfare surpassed only by Beatles tours and lockdown picnics, Marshall returned to the Tigers for a three-year stint, one which was great for the game’s soul but not for his own treatment.
Much like Christopher Moltisanti in The Sopranos, Marshall looked done and dusted many times throughout his career. But he kept on surviving, kept on moving, kept on keeping on in the game he loves. He signed with Souths, hoping to get one last tilt at success.
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And now he has a grand final to play, 16 years after his last. That fact in itself is astonishing and unprecedented, breaking the record of Lote Tuqiri who, 14 years after playing in the 2000 decider with Brisbane, appeared in the 2014 instalment with Souths. Tuqiri, though, benefited from a seven-year holiday from the physicality of the NRL with a stint playing rugby union.
And so, the skinny kid with the sideburns and the big step is now the oldest player in the NRL, a little rounder and a little slower but full of experience and know-how. He is happy to be a culture guy. He is happy to be a bit-part player. He is happy to just do his job, despite all he has achieved and his grand status in the game. Bennett knew what Marshall could bring to a Souths team that had played three straight preliminaries. He knew he would help with calmness and togetherness in grand final week.
The flash in the pan is now the rock, a remarkable story of survival and regeneration and overcoming the odds. Marshall has survived. And he has thrived. And now a fairytale is within reach for one of the most popular players the game has ever seen.
