Darcey Lussick interview
Jan 5, 2021 18:53:41 GMT
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Carnster, bonitared, and 3 more like this
Post by redunderthebed on Jan 5, 2021 18:53:41 GMT
Good interview with our new prop from rugbyleaguehub.com.......
BY ROSS HEPPENSTALL
TRAUMATIC DOES not even begin to do justice to the plight of Toronto Wolfpack’s players and staff during 2020, but Darcy Lussick is looking forward to a new chapter at Salford.
The Australian prop forward, left high and dry after Toronto withdrew from Super League before being denied readmission to the competition, shelved thoughts of retirement to join the Red Devils on a one-year deal.
It is a perfect move for Lussick as he lives in Salford and will aim to follow in the footsteps of younger brother Joey, who helped the Red Devils to the 2019 Grand Final and 2020 Challenge Cup final. Salford lost both encounters, but there was no shame in that.
They emerged as a respected force under Ian Watson and, although he has jumped ship for Huddersfield Giants, Salford appear well placed to continue their progress under Richard Marshall.
“It really couldn’t have worked out any better for me,” says 31-year-old Lussick, who emulated his father Jason by playing for hometown club Manly Sea Eagles in the NRL, enjoying two spells there either side of a stint at Parramatta Eels.
“After the way it ended at Toronto, I thought it would have been perfect to go and play for Salford. I live here and was familiar with the club through my brother, so I’ve become a Salford fan in the past couple of years.
“Signing here seems like the perfect fit – everything fell into place pretty quickly and here I am. Two weeks ago, I was pretty much resigned to the fact that I was going to retire.
“I was looking at maybe going back home, but then Ian Blease gave me a call. I didn’t need any convincing at all and it took two minutes to agree a deal.”
Joey Lussick left Salford at the end of last season to return to the NRL with a move to Parramatta.
Did Darcy seek his brother’s advice before putting pen to paper at the AJ Bell Stadium?
“I didn’t need to, I already knew what the club was all about,” says Lussick.
“They’re sort of one of the smaller clubs but I think that works to their advantage because they have become such a tight-knit group.
“You could probably see that in their performances over the past two years, how hard they work for each other, and how close they are off the field.
“I’m really happy to be joining a club like this. Not playing at all last year has done wonders for my body.
“There weren’t those collisions week in and week out because I didn’t play at all in 2020.
“In the next 10 weeks, I’m going to have to do a lot of running to get my body up to speed for the start of Super League in mid-March.
“I’m a lot more mature now than previous years and believe I can definitely contribute to the team in a really positive way.
“I think the boys will really enjoy playing with me. We’ve got a really strong forward pack and I looked around at training on Monday and we’ve got a great backline too.
“The club has done a great job in bringing in a lot of experience, guys who have played a lot of games, so there is a good mix. Richard Marshall left a great impression on me when I first met him.
“He’s not a coach who shouts and screams but lets you know what he expects of you. A lot of players respond to that kind of positivity rather than someone yelling at you.
“So far, I’ve been really impressed with him and it’s fair to say he’s quite different to Brian McDermott!”
In such uncertain times, finding some much-needed stability is not to be sniffed at, especially for a player who went seven months without being paid by his former employers.
Lussick admits: “It was really tough. I don’t have any kids but some of the other guys have young families and mortgages.
“Obviously I have my own financial commitments but the hardest thing for me was that I’m coming to the back of my career and still had a few years on good money.
“I was banking on that to set me up, so it really threw a spanner in the works – nothing has hit my bank account for seven months now.
“It’s been a tough ride. You think if you don’t get paid for two or three weeks but seven months? I still managed to pay my bills and everything like that because you have savings but that just disappears.
“I was just about to start building a house back home in Australia, but that’s an empty block now.
“People say as rugby league players we get paid good money and should be fine but it’s not what people think and everyone has financial commitments – mortgages, rent, cars, etc.
“If you don’t pay your mortgage for three months, your house gets taken so it’s bloody hard going as long as we did without being paid. In the end, I got through it and it was a good learning experience.
“With Covid, a lot of people have lost their jobs and indeed their lives. You’ve got to take the good with the bad.”
Toronto owner David Argyle ran out of cash during the pandemic, prompting him to withdraw the club from Super League shortly before the competition’s restart in August.
It was a huge embarrassment to the competition and led to the majority of top-flight clubs voting to keep them out of Super League following a bid by Carlo LiVolsi to seize control.
Lussick says: “When the Wolfpack withdrew from Super League in July, we were all hopeful the club would still be around the following season.
“We were all preparing for LiVolsi to take over the club – he said he was going to backpay us what we were owed and take the Wolfpack forward.
“But then the bad news came that, for whatever reason, Toronto had not been voted back in by the other Super League clubs for that 12th spot.
“That was disappointing for all the players and staff because it meant we all lost our jobs and the money we were owed.
“I’m not going to say anything bad about David Argyle, though. He clearly poured a lot of money into the club and he gave me an opportunity to come and live in the UK and Toronto.
“If he is down and out at the moment, I hope he gets back on his feet because what he was trying to do for rugby league in Canada, you have to give him some credit for that.”
Lussick did not even get chance to play in Super League last year because he underwent surgery on a hernia. By the time he was fit to play, the season had been suspended and the UK placed in lockdown.
“I was right to go in March but that was the week that rugby league got cancelled,” he explains.
In November, the Wolfpack launched a GoFundMe campaign asking for support to raise funds for the club’s players and staff.
The GMB, the player’s union, remain in dialogue with Argyle about the players being paid at least a portion of their lost earnings.
“There is a process there where the whole team is going through the GMB and the reports suggest that Argyle will give us some money,” says Lussick.
“I guess it’s just a case of wait and see, but I’m hopeful he will do the right thing.”
As Lussick regales his experiences of being a Toronto player, he is philosophical rather than angry.
Indeed, he loved his time with the Wolfpack and counts helping them to promotion to Super League in 2019 as one of the highlights of his career.
The majority of last season’s Toronto squad have found opportunities elsewhere and Lussick says: “Some of my best memories were playing for the Wolfpack, especially in Toronto.
“I played some of my best footy under Brian Mac. He was a great man-manager, you could have a laugh with him, but at the same time you didn’t want to upset him.
“That’s probably why we worked so hard and for someone of his standing in the game to get behind the Toronto concept so passionately, he could see how much the British game was crying out for something like that.
“The lifestyle we lived, seeing rugby league take off there and build a fanbase of 10,000 supporters, going crazy in the stands, it was just amazing.
“The whole city was getting behind us and I couldn’t believe how good it was.
“That’s why it’s still really bitter that it has ended and it’s tough to accept, especially because a lot of the people who knocked the Toronto concept never experienced the gameday over there.
“It was something that gamedays over here in the UK will never come close to.
“I’ve spoken to a lot of other Super League players and they said they had all circled when they were going to Toronto – they were looking forward to it that much.
“But nothing lasts forever does it? I am moving on now and am looking forward to the next chapter at Salford. We definitely have the players and staff to have a good season in 2021.
“If you’re a Salford supporter then you should definitely be pretty excited for the season ahead.”
Rugby league is in the Lussick family’s blood and, aside from Darcy and Joey, youngest brother Freddy is making a name for himself at Sydney Roosters.
Freddy, like Joey, is a scheming hooker and Darcy says: “Freddy debuted for the Roosters last year and played in the semi-finals.
“He’s only 19 but he’s going good. As brothers we’ve all had different careers so far and I guess we can all look at each other and take a bit of inspiration.
“As the big brother, I can claim to be the first one who made it so they can both bow down to me!”
Manly is the club which remains in Lussick’s heart as he grew up in Sydney’s northern beaches just five minutes from the Brookvale Oval.
“My dad obviously played there and I was always a Manly supporter for as long as I can remember,” says Lussick, who in December 2019 beat Justin Hodges in a professional boxing bout, stopping him in just 39 seconds.
“To be able to debut for your childhood club is pretty special and I did it at Brookvale Oval as well, which made it even better.
“Some of the players I debuted with were all-time Manly greats and when I was in high school I would look up to these guys.
“The next minute I’m standing next to them on the field and playing for Manly, so it was a pretty surreal experience. I really enjoyed my time there.”
A young Lussick played for Manly in their 2012 World Club Challenge defeat to Leeds Rhinos at a sold-out Headingley, when a crowd of 21,062 saw the Rhinos prevail 26-12 with Ryan Hall scoring twice.
Lussick cites Manly coach Des Hasler, now back at the club for his second spell, as a major influence on his early career.
“Des is an amazing coach. He went back to Manly because he knows what the club is about. It doesn’t work when you get a coach from Manly who’s not from Manly. I firmly believe that.”
Lussick’s one-year deal at Salford means he is already thinking about the future and he is open-minded about when he might hang up his boots.
“I’m not looking too far ahead but I’m not really ready for the workforce yet!” he laughs.
“I’ll see how I go this year but a one-year deal suits me fine. I’m at Salford for the right reasons. I’m definitely not there for the money or anything like that.
“I want to end on my terms and Salford is a club I want to be at.
“The community here are so passionate about the club and when I signed here, I got so many messages on social media from supporters.
“They have welcomed me with open arms and they were fantastic with Joey when he played here. That’s pretty rare because at some clubs the fans just tear into you.
“At Salford, they get right behind you and that’s pretty special. I just want to get back to playing some good football and doing well for my team-mates and the fans.
“In terms of team goals, Salford have been in two finals in the past two seasons so hopefully we can go one better by winning a major trophy in 2021.”
BY ROSS HEPPENSTALL
TRAUMATIC DOES not even begin to do justice to the plight of Toronto Wolfpack’s players and staff during 2020, but Darcy Lussick is looking forward to a new chapter at Salford.
The Australian prop forward, left high and dry after Toronto withdrew from Super League before being denied readmission to the competition, shelved thoughts of retirement to join the Red Devils on a one-year deal.
It is a perfect move for Lussick as he lives in Salford and will aim to follow in the footsteps of younger brother Joey, who helped the Red Devils to the 2019 Grand Final and 2020 Challenge Cup final. Salford lost both encounters, but there was no shame in that.
They emerged as a respected force under Ian Watson and, although he has jumped ship for Huddersfield Giants, Salford appear well placed to continue their progress under Richard Marshall.
“It really couldn’t have worked out any better for me,” says 31-year-old Lussick, who emulated his father Jason by playing for hometown club Manly Sea Eagles in the NRL, enjoying two spells there either side of a stint at Parramatta Eels.
“After the way it ended at Toronto, I thought it would have been perfect to go and play for Salford. I live here and was familiar with the club through my brother, so I’ve become a Salford fan in the past couple of years.
“Signing here seems like the perfect fit – everything fell into place pretty quickly and here I am. Two weeks ago, I was pretty much resigned to the fact that I was going to retire.
“I was looking at maybe going back home, but then Ian Blease gave me a call. I didn’t need any convincing at all and it took two minutes to agree a deal.”
Joey Lussick left Salford at the end of last season to return to the NRL with a move to Parramatta.
Did Darcy seek his brother’s advice before putting pen to paper at the AJ Bell Stadium?
“I didn’t need to, I already knew what the club was all about,” says Lussick.
“They’re sort of one of the smaller clubs but I think that works to their advantage because they have become such a tight-knit group.
“You could probably see that in their performances over the past two years, how hard they work for each other, and how close they are off the field.
“I’m really happy to be joining a club like this. Not playing at all last year has done wonders for my body.
“There weren’t those collisions week in and week out because I didn’t play at all in 2020.
“In the next 10 weeks, I’m going to have to do a lot of running to get my body up to speed for the start of Super League in mid-March.
“I’m a lot more mature now than previous years and believe I can definitely contribute to the team in a really positive way.
“I think the boys will really enjoy playing with me. We’ve got a really strong forward pack and I looked around at training on Monday and we’ve got a great backline too.
“The club has done a great job in bringing in a lot of experience, guys who have played a lot of games, so there is a good mix. Richard Marshall left a great impression on me when I first met him.
“He’s not a coach who shouts and screams but lets you know what he expects of you. A lot of players respond to that kind of positivity rather than someone yelling at you.
“So far, I’ve been really impressed with him and it’s fair to say he’s quite different to Brian McDermott!”
In such uncertain times, finding some much-needed stability is not to be sniffed at, especially for a player who went seven months without being paid by his former employers.
Lussick admits: “It was really tough. I don’t have any kids but some of the other guys have young families and mortgages.
“Obviously I have my own financial commitments but the hardest thing for me was that I’m coming to the back of my career and still had a few years on good money.
“I was banking on that to set me up, so it really threw a spanner in the works – nothing has hit my bank account for seven months now.
“It’s been a tough ride. You think if you don’t get paid for two or three weeks but seven months? I still managed to pay my bills and everything like that because you have savings but that just disappears.
“I was just about to start building a house back home in Australia, but that’s an empty block now.
“People say as rugby league players we get paid good money and should be fine but it’s not what people think and everyone has financial commitments – mortgages, rent, cars, etc.
“If you don’t pay your mortgage for three months, your house gets taken so it’s bloody hard going as long as we did without being paid. In the end, I got through it and it was a good learning experience.
“With Covid, a lot of people have lost their jobs and indeed their lives. You’ve got to take the good with the bad.”
Toronto owner David Argyle ran out of cash during the pandemic, prompting him to withdraw the club from Super League shortly before the competition’s restart in August.
It was a huge embarrassment to the competition and led to the majority of top-flight clubs voting to keep them out of Super League following a bid by Carlo LiVolsi to seize control.
Lussick says: “When the Wolfpack withdrew from Super League in July, we were all hopeful the club would still be around the following season.
“We were all preparing for LiVolsi to take over the club – he said he was going to backpay us what we were owed and take the Wolfpack forward.
“But then the bad news came that, for whatever reason, Toronto had not been voted back in by the other Super League clubs for that 12th spot.
“That was disappointing for all the players and staff because it meant we all lost our jobs and the money we were owed.
“I’m not going to say anything bad about David Argyle, though. He clearly poured a lot of money into the club and he gave me an opportunity to come and live in the UK and Toronto.
“If he is down and out at the moment, I hope he gets back on his feet because what he was trying to do for rugby league in Canada, you have to give him some credit for that.”
Lussick did not even get chance to play in Super League last year because he underwent surgery on a hernia. By the time he was fit to play, the season had been suspended and the UK placed in lockdown.
“I was right to go in March but that was the week that rugby league got cancelled,” he explains.
In November, the Wolfpack launched a GoFundMe campaign asking for support to raise funds for the club’s players and staff.
The GMB, the player’s union, remain in dialogue with Argyle about the players being paid at least a portion of their lost earnings.
“There is a process there where the whole team is going through the GMB and the reports suggest that Argyle will give us some money,” says Lussick.
“I guess it’s just a case of wait and see, but I’m hopeful he will do the right thing.”
As Lussick regales his experiences of being a Toronto player, he is philosophical rather than angry.
Indeed, he loved his time with the Wolfpack and counts helping them to promotion to Super League in 2019 as one of the highlights of his career.
The majority of last season’s Toronto squad have found opportunities elsewhere and Lussick says: “Some of my best memories were playing for the Wolfpack, especially in Toronto.
“I played some of my best footy under Brian Mac. He was a great man-manager, you could have a laugh with him, but at the same time you didn’t want to upset him.
“That’s probably why we worked so hard and for someone of his standing in the game to get behind the Toronto concept so passionately, he could see how much the British game was crying out for something like that.
“The lifestyle we lived, seeing rugby league take off there and build a fanbase of 10,000 supporters, going crazy in the stands, it was just amazing.
“The whole city was getting behind us and I couldn’t believe how good it was.
“That’s why it’s still really bitter that it has ended and it’s tough to accept, especially because a lot of the people who knocked the Toronto concept never experienced the gameday over there.
“It was something that gamedays over here in the UK will never come close to.
“I’ve spoken to a lot of other Super League players and they said they had all circled when they were going to Toronto – they were looking forward to it that much.
“But nothing lasts forever does it? I am moving on now and am looking forward to the next chapter at Salford. We definitely have the players and staff to have a good season in 2021.
“If you’re a Salford supporter then you should definitely be pretty excited for the season ahead.”
Rugby league is in the Lussick family’s blood and, aside from Darcy and Joey, youngest brother Freddy is making a name for himself at Sydney Roosters.
Freddy, like Joey, is a scheming hooker and Darcy says: “Freddy debuted for the Roosters last year and played in the semi-finals.
“He’s only 19 but he’s going good. As brothers we’ve all had different careers so far and I guess we can all look at each other and take a bit of inspiration.
“As the big brother, I can claim to be the first one who made it so they can both bow down to me!”
Manly is the club which remains in Lussick’s heart as he grew up in Sydney’s northern beaches just five minutes from the Brookvale Oval.
“My dad obviously played there and I was always a Manly supporter for as long as I can remember,” says Lussick, who in December 2019 beat Justin Hodges in a professional boxing bout, stopping him in just 39 seconds.
“To be able to debut for your childhood club is pretty special and I did it at Brookvale Oval as well, which made it even better.
“Some of the players I debuted with were all-time Manly greats and when I was in high school I would look up to these guys.
“The next minute I’m standing next to them on the field and playing for Manly, so it was a pretty surreal experience. I really enjoyed my time there.”
A young Lussick played for Manly in their 2012 World Club Challenge defeat to Leeds Rhinos at a sold-out Headingley, when a crowd of 21,062 saw the Rhinos prevail 26-12 with Ryan Hall scoring twice.
Lussick cites Manly coach Des Hasler, now back at the club for his second spell, as a major influence on his early career.
“Des is an amazing coach. He went back to Manly because he knows what the club is about. It doesn’t work when you get a coach from Manly who’s not from Manly. I firmly believe that.”
Lussick’s one-year deal at Salford means he is already thinking about the future and he is open-minded about when he might hang up his boots.
“I’m not looking too far ahead but I’m not really ready for the workforce yet!” he laughs.
“I’ll see how I go this year but a one-year deal suits me fine. I’m at Salford for the right reasons. I’m definitely not there for the money or anything like that.
“I want to end on my terms and Salford is a club I want to be at.
“The community here are so passionate about the club and when I signed here, I got so many messages on social media from supporters.
“They have welcomed me with open arms and they were fantastic with Joey when he played here. That’s pretty rare because at some clubs the fans just tear into you.
“At Salford, they get right behind you and that’s pretty special. I just want to get back to playing some good football and doing well for my team-mates and the fans.
“In terms of team goals, Salford have been in two finals in the past two seasons so hopefully we can go one better by winning a major trophy in 2021.”
