Source : ABC NEWS
He might be 35 and in his 16th year of NRL football, but Dane Gagai is not old.
Is he older than other players? Yes, definitely. Gagai has been around long enough that he’s faced footballers involved in the Super League war.
He’s the last Newcastle Knight to have played alongside Danny Buderus and when he moves to Brisbane next season he’ll join Ben Hunt as the last Broncos to have played with Darren Lockyer.
Penrith legend Craig Gower, who made his first-grade debut 30 years ago, is another former teammate and Gagai is the only player in the entire league who has played in a preliminary final for the Knights courtesy of their run through the 2013 finals.
Dane Gagai is one of the NRL’s longest-serving players. (Getty Images: Jason McCawley)
Cody Hopwood, a teammate for Friday night’s sudden-death semi-final against South Sydney, watched those games under a Knights blanket at his grandmother’s house because he was just seven years old at the time.
Gagai is the fourth most-capped player in Knights history with 238 appearances and has already played the most first-grade games of any outside back in the history of the sport in Australia with 336 and counting.
But that doesn’t mean he’s old, not by a long shot, because in rugby league to be old is to be done and Gagai is far from done.
Dane Gagai will return to Brisbane next year after leaving almost 16 years ago. (Getty Images: Bradley Kanaris)
“If you call me old and I’m out on that field and I’m leaving you behind, whether it’s fitness games, conditioning or in the weight room, you better back it up,” Gagai said.
“I’ve signed another contract for next year and I don’t plan on finishing up after that but whether that’s the end or not, you only have a limited time in this game.
“I don’t want to leave it and think, ‘If only I’d put in a bit more here or there.’
“Like a lot of players say, you’re a long time retired so you might as well enjoy it while you’re here.
“It’s that competitive side of me [that gets going] when people tell me I’m getting old. It gives me a point to prove.”
Gagai has been proving that point for many years now as part of a long goodbye with no end in sight.
Dane Gagai has played some of his best football in recent years. (Getty Images: Scott Gardiner)
It’s a different world from the old days of “Origin Gagai”, when he shrugged off indifferent club form to become a Queensland superhero.
For many years Gagai has worked hard to make the most of every moment and he still pushes himself to new limits at an age when other players are slowing down.
This year Gagai had the eighth-most tackle busts of any player in the league and was second only to Herbie Farnworth among centres.
He set a new career high for linebreaks in a season two years ago and recorded his career high for average metres per game the year before that.
Some of his best days have come when Newcastle have had little else to go on. Along with Jacob Saifiti, Gagai is one of just two players remaining at the club since its interminable one-win wooden spoon season in 2016.
Hard times like that have made him stronger.
Dane Gagai has given his all for the Knights, in good times and bad. (Getty Images: Matt King)
Case in point was last year, when the Knights again slumped to last amid a horror campaign beset by misery and blighted by attacking struggles.
On a team that couldn’t attack to save itself, Gagai had the second-most tackle busts of any player in the league as he gave fine service for a hopeless cause right to the end.
This year, where the Knights have surged back into the finals despite another torrid injury toll, is both a reward and a vindication of his approach, a reminder that while winning is nice the fighting is the point.
Because of those injuries, a lot of Gagai’s younger teammates have had to grow up quickly. Many of them will be making their finals debuts on Friday night and Gagai will offer advice if required, but to him most of them won’t need it.
“I don’t think I need to say much. I’ve been so impressed with how these young boys have stepped up,” Gagai said.
“I’m sure the nerves are through the roof but nerves aren’t always a bad thing. It’s just about making sure you prepare well, that’s what I’d say to the boys.
“Not only on the field but away from the field, be it sleep, diet, just doing everything you need to do to make sure, come Friday night, you have no doubt in your mind.
“You’ll never be able to control nerves, they’ll always be there. I still get them. Trust your ability, because these guys have shown what they’re capable of and that doesn’t change Friday night.”
Sixteen years and 336 games is a long time to carry nerves around and they might be warranted this week given Gagai will be marking up on Latrell Mitchell, the apex predator of South Sydney’s lethal left edge.
But Gagai learned how to turn those nerves into steel many years ago and he’ll take a sense of certainty into his battle with Mitchell, where his physicality and decision-making will prove crucial to Newcastle’s hopes of pulling off the upset.
“The nerves, for me, show that you care and you’re worried about what could happen,” Gagai said.
“But then you need to find out how to control what you can control. We know what Latrell is capable of, we know what Cody [Walker] is capable of, but I can’t control what they do.
“I can only control what I do, how I go about things, what my actions are. That’s one way to control those nerves, even if they’ll always be there.”
Dane Gagai still has plenty of mates at South Sydney. (Getty Images: Brendon Thorne)
It’d be easy for Gagai to give into nostalgia this week of all weeks. He still has plenty of mates at South Sydney from his Rabbitoh days who he speaks with all the time. Gagai was shaking hands and slapping backs with a fair few of them at Jai Arrow’s 100th NRL game last week.
He thinks Alex Johnston’s record-breaking try this year was one of rugby league’s best moments of the season and was proud to play a part in a few of them.
Gagai loves that he and his old teammates can fight like demons and have a laugh about it once the dust settles and the blood dries up, like he did after his memorable running battle with Cameron Munster in a match against the Storm earlier this year.
Perhaps he will swap jerseys with someone, as he has many times this year, building a collection he can one day see hanging on the walls and in which he can lose himself in memories.
But not yet. Gagai will not surrender himself to thinking of days past and the recollection of old friends and foes alike. There are still great things to come, he is sure of it.
Gagai insists he has never given a single thought to retirement, or to how Friday could be his last game as a Knight, or to what awaits beyond his return to Brisbane, because to look back is to not be here and not being here is to be lost.
There is still plenty of fight in Gagai yet, especially if someone is going to call him old.
“It’s that competitive side of me and I love that side, when people tell me something and I have a point to prove, not to anybody else, just to myself,” Gagai said.
“Until I lose that passion, that motivation to compete and play our game, or if the body can’t physically keep up, I’m not going to let anyone decide when I’m going to retire. That’s my decision and my family’s decision.
“I love playing rugby league, I love competing and I hate losing and I’m just glad I’m in this position where we can compete for a premiership.”
