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Played golf with Gary Freeman the other day because 25 years ago this week he was the first Kiwi to win the Dally M Medal, picking up the votes of Daily Mirror journalists ahead of a coterie of the game’s champions including Terry Lamb, Mal Meninga and Allan Langer.
Didn’t see him play? Friend, get onto YouTube. He was a ripper, ‘the Wiz’. A hoot to watch play.
Like his great rival Ricky Stuart, Freeman was competitive to the point of madness. He was wiry and tough; a classic ‘annoying’ halfback: lippy, full of gob.
And if a referee had – in his opinion – made an error, he would let them know.
“Oh, mate, I didn’t miss ‘em,” he smiles as we golf around my home track, Long Reef Golf Club, on these our Lord Mr Lillee’s northern beaches.
“If they made a mistake I’d remind them all game. Tell them they owed us. I had a good relationship with most of them. Others, not so much.”
Freeman’s reputation as something of an agitator could precede him.
“One game I played, this referee, I won’t name him, we’re just about to kick off and he’s reminding the chasers to stay onside,” says Freeman.
“Y’know – ‘Left side, stay onside, right side, stay onside.’ And then he barks, ‘And you! Number seven! You stay onside! [Laughs] We hadn’t even kicked off!
“And then all through the game he’s into me, hammering me, telling me what to do. ‘Get onside’, ‘Get off him’, all that.
“By the end of the game I’m about to feed a scrum and he tells me to put it in straight. By then I’d had enough. So I gave him the ball and told him he could feed it. I said: ‘You’ve been telling me what to do all game, you show me how it’s done. You feed the bloody scrum.’
“Then I walked off, stood to the side of the scrum while both packs of forwards are packed in and wondering what’s going on. And the ref’s standing there with the ball in his hands, and me telling him to feed it.”
Freeman loves his footy. He’ll watch all eight games across a weekend.
And so if Tony Archer and any of the referees would like his advice, it is this:
“My strong advice is that we’ve let the rules go so far,” he offers. “Next year I think they should sit all the coaches down and the refs should tell them: this is how we’re going to referee the game.”
And how should that be?
“To the f***ing rules! Play the ball with your foot! Play the ball straight! I’ve seen guys play the ball sideways. The other day, Andrew Fifita played the ball, he was facing the sideline.
“Before next season I would sit down all the coaches and point out all the errors, all the things that aren’t being done, the things we’ve let slide.
“And I’d tell them: this is being fixed, and this is being fixed, and so on.
“Get rid of the grey areas. If you don’t play the ball with your foot: penalty. See how many guys do it then.
“Might sound like a small thing. But you adjudicate to the rules you’ll have a better game.”
Old school?
“People will say it’s old school. I don’t give a rat’s arse! There’s massive grey areas. No-one knows what’s going on. They’re miked up with the bunker, two touchies, commentators on their back.
“People can handle referees making mistakes – players make them. But if refs are calling each play, making each decision as they see it, people will cop it. They mightn’t like it. But they’ll respect you for making the call.”
(Photo by Getty Images)
As a player Freeman was an ornery man who lived to challenge norms and change perceptions. There were shades of jockeys Shane Dye and Jimmy Cassidy about him. Like them, Freeman loved to stick it up big brother.
And by the time he arrived at Leichhardt Oval late in 1987 he was a seasoned, 25-year-old league man. He’d notched six Tests for the Kiwis and was thus eligible to be signed in the NSWRL.
He would play two successful seasons with Balmain, reaching grand finals in 1988 and ’89. In 1990 the Tigers finished in a playoff for fifth in a season dominated by Canberra, Brisbane and Penrith.
And their window was gone.
In 1991 the Tigers signed Alan Jones as coach. The former Wallabies man brought a former Wallaby with him, Brian Smith, whom Jones made halfback.
Freeman was put in reserve grade.
Freeman obviously didn’t agree. He was the captain of New Zealand. Smith had never played rugby league.
Ask Freeman about it while wandering the golf course and he’ll tell you he doesn’t want to talk about it. He’ll tell you he’s moved on.
“I’d prefer to remember the good times,” he says.
And then talks about the bad ones anyway.
“I went to [CEO] Keith Barnes and said, ‘I can’t do this anymore, I’m out of here’. Keith told me, ‘Wiz, give it time, it will work itself out.’
“But I was adamant; I’d had enough. I walked out there and then. Then I went home and told my wife. She said, ‘Why’d you do that for? You should’ve at least been paid out.’ I said, ‘Stuff ‘em – it’s not about the money’. She was like, ‘Well, that’s very noble but what do you now for money?’ And I was like [laughs] … ‘I’ll think of something!’”
He rang around. Found an ear in Mark Murray and Jack Gibson at the Roosters. He found some luck: a bloke in a gym, George Yiasemides, was watching him train and offered some advice.
“He told me I was doing it all wrong,” says Freeman. “I was like, yeah whatever mate. But he said, ‘Let me look after you for a few months, I’ll set you right’. And he did. And he was outstanding. By the time footy season came along I’d never been fitter.”
The Roosters’ season started brightly with Freeman polling Dally M votes in eight consecutive games. But when their ace big man Craig Salvatori was suspended for six weeks for headbutting, the Roosters slipped off the pace.
Gibson barred Salvatori from training. You wonder did it unsettle the side. Regardless, “you didn’t argue with Jack,” says Freeman.
Easts won their last game 56-16 against Souths. But all that was left was Mad Monday and the Dally M. How was the night of nights, Wizard?
“It was in the morning,” says Freeman. “John Fahey was premier, presented me with the award. It was great. I’d gone from the year before, being cut loose to playing my best season under Jack and Mark.
“And being the first Kiwi to win the award was huge. Alfie Langer came third, Terry Lamb ran second.
“And I was New Zealand’s sports personality of the year [laughs] – voted by the fans! Fantastic.”