JayBee
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Ennis: the devil is only in his guise
July 2, 2011
Michael Ennis's on-field reputation shouldn't precede him off it, writes Richard Hinds
HOW do you tell Michael Ennis that you have not sat him down in the lobby of the NSW team hotel to put him on trial like those judges in cyberspace? How do you make it clear that you have not come to make him justify a few well-chronicled acts some have portrayed as crimes against football, and that, rather than perpetrating the cartoon villain stereotype, you want to know what has made Ennis one of the NRL's most ferocious competitors. You want to know why he pushes himself, and the game, to the limits - and sometimes a bit beyond, not how others interpret his actions.
You want to know what steeled the kid who was barely 17 when he played in a first-grade premiership match in Newcastle against grizzled veterans after the first-choice halfback hurt his back the day before the game. To find out what drives the Bulldogs' hooker who admits even he sometimes forgets that, at 179 centimetres, he is a pygmy in a land of giants.
You want to discover what motivates Ennis to drag himself to the ruck time and time again, as he did recently on a cold night at Campbelltown when he made 55 tackles in the Bulldogs' vital win over Wests Tigers - despite the pain from recent ear surgery that might have kept others on the sidelines.
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You want to know how he endured the disappointment of missing the Broncos' 2006 premiership because of a knee injury and rebounded from public criticism after a couple of well-publicised Origin mistakes. To learn how he kept the confidence of those around him and - most importantly - confidence in himself.
You want to understand how a 27-year-old with three young children retains such a fierce focus. To reconcile the doting husband and father who refuses to argue with his wife, Simone - ''even when I try to make him'' - with the combative warrior who crosses the white line.
You have not come to bury Ennis under cliches. You have come to find out why he will play such a crucial role on Wednesday night in the biggest game of his career. But as obviously intelligent, polite and articulate as Ennis is, it takes time to make that subtle distinction.
Understandably, given the reputation with which he has been lumbered, Ennis is like a batsman who has decided what shot he will play before the ball is bowled. So, when you allude to the incidents and labels that have come to define him in some minds - his reputation as a ''niggler'', the respected Nathan Hindmarsh describing him as ''a grub'' and the lingering ''Ennis the Menace'' headlines - his response is long and seemingly premeditated.
Ennis says there was a time when the criticism got to him, that he has surrounded himself with good people, that he no longer cares about what he cannot control, that he trusts the opinions of those close to him and not the perceptions of outsiders, that it is enough that he knows he is a good person.
''There are going to be people who like you and people who don't like you,'' he says. ''The way I play the game and how I compete for a small guy, the aggressive style of football that I play at times is perceived however people want to perceive it.''
But if the explanation is well considered, it should be unnecessary. Whether by design or circumstance, the public have got to know Ennis better in recent times. There have been photos with his wife and three children, Jack, Koby Fox and Randy, media appearances in which his good nature shines.
''I hope it has changed,'' Simone says of the public perceptions. ''We used to wonder why we had to do the interviews and tell our life story just to show people Michael is the person he is. Honestly … he is the nicest person in the world. He's also a footballer and what he does on the field he does for his team, not even for himself. I don't think he should have to justify himself.''
Whether people choose to separate the pantomime villain from the real person is one of those things Ennis cannot control. Meanwhile, the more interesting question remains: what stokes Ennis's competitive flames?
The amateur psychologist seizes on the obvious: a small kid, the younger brother fighting the odds in backyard scraps. ''A lot of stages I was playing up a few ages, playing against men,'' says Ennis. ''That does toughen you up.''
In his teenage years, the separation of his parents and his father's descent into alcoholism before his death in 2004 had a profound impact. When school friends went down the wrong path - ''smoking dope, drinking'' - Ennis, like his mentor, Wayne Bennett, learnt self-discipline. That is evident in the rigorous way he prepares himself for combat I the adherence to diet, the extra recovery sessions, the strict routine.
Playing for four NRL clubs - Newcastle, St George Illawarra, Brisbane and the Bulldogs - by the age of 24 might have drained and disillusioned some players. Ennis instead soaked up lessons from the likes of Andrew Johns at Newcastle and, particularly, Bennett in Brisbane.
Having excelled at club level and achieved his childhood ambition of playing Origin, Ennis was again forced to endure strong public criticism. When he struck Nate Myles during Origin III last year and conceded a game-turning penalty, some said he should never be picked for NSW again. That stung.
''But you've got to move on and move on quick, otherwise the game will pass you by,'' says Ennis. ''Coming into this season, I knew I just had to play good footy and take the positive out of it, knowing prior to that incident I'd played pretty well in that game. Sometimes you've got to learn the hard way.''
Ennis was criticised when he kicked on the fourth tackle with NSW leading late in game one this year. Queensland subsequently scored the winning try. Ennis was hard on himself. But he had a staunch advocate in coach Ricky Stuart. ''I like how he cares,'' says Stuart. ''He cares about his footy, he cares about his preparation, he cares about the result. He has made mistakes but they are the right sort of mistakes … maybe just from trying a bit too hard to shape the result. But he learns from that.''
Origin seems made for Ennis. The hostile atmosphere, the enormous pressure, the test of courage and endurance. As he anticipates walking into the Suncorp Stadium cauldron, Ennis gives the best clue so far about what pushes him. ''They are the sort of mental sides of things I enjoy in a game,'' he says. ''I enjoy those times when you are hurting and you test yourself to see how much more you've got left. That's when you test whether you are mentally strong and whether the opposition is strong. I enjoy that feeling of breaking people down.''
Strong-willed opponents do not like to be broken down. Thus rivalries are created, like his battle with Wests Tigers hooker Robbie Farah.
''No doubt when players are in the same position … between two competitive people it will always get heated,'' says Ennis. ''But I don't get drawn into personal rubbish … [Farah] was in camp two weeks ago. I shook his hand and had a chat to him about his trip to New Zealand … Mate, the guy high-fived me and shook my hand after we won that game [Origin II]. There is certainly feeling when you are playing against one another but that's what footy is. If you don't have that feeling, you shouldn't be playing.''
In Origin II, Ennis put a high tackle on Queensland forward Corey Parker. The former Brisbane teammates were groomsmen at each others weddings and are godfathers to each other's children. Parker did not speak to Ennis for two days. ''But we came around. He's been a good family friend for a long time. He's in one team and I'm in another and we're playing a game of footy.''
So what drives Ennis? ''If you want to know,'' says Simone, ''when he was going off [to camp], our four-year-old son chased the car. He stopped and Jack said: 'Daddy, I really want you to win. I really want you to beat those Queenslanders.' You know he'll be thinking about that.''
Read more: http://www.smh.com.au/rugby-league/...n-his-guise-20110701-1gv3l.html#ixzz1Qtyng2MX
July 2, 2011
Michael Ennis's on-field reputation shouldn't precede him off it, writes Richard Hinds
HOW do you tell Michael Ennis that you have not sat him down in the lobby of the NSW team hotel to put him on trial like those judges in cyberspace? How do you make it clear that you have not come to make him justify a few well-chronicled acts some have portrayed as crimes against football, and that, rather than perpetrating the cartoon villain stereotype, you want to know what has made Ennis one of the NRL's most ferocious competitors. You want to know why he pushes himself, and the game, to the limits - and sometimes a bit beyond, not how others interpret his actions.
You want to know what steeled the kid who was barely 17 when he played in a first-grade premiership match in Newcastle against grizzled veterans after the first-choice halfback hurt his back the day before the game. To find out what drives the Bulldogs' hooker who admits even he sometimes forgets that, at 179 centimetres, he is a pygmy in a land of giants.
You want to discover what motivates Ennis to drag himself to the ruck time and time again, as he did recently on a cold night at Campbelltown when he made 55 tackles in the Bulldogs' vital win over Wests Tigers - despite the pain from recent ear surgery that might have kept others on the sidelines.
Advertisement: Story continues below
You want to know how he endured the disappointment of missing the Broncos' 2006 premiership because of a knee injury and rebounded from public criticism after a couple of well-publicised Origin mistakes. To learn how he kept the confidence of those around him and - most importantly - confidence in himself.
You want to understand how a 27-year-old with three young children retains such a fierce focus. To reconcile the doting husband and father who refuses to argue with his wife, Simone - ''even when I try to make him'' - with the combative warrior who crosses the white line.
You have not come to bury Ennis under cliches. You have come to find out why he will play such a crucial role on Wednesday night in the biggest game of his career. But as obviously intelligent, polite and articulate as Ennis is, it takes time to make that subtle distinction.
Understandably, given the reputation with which he has been lumbered, Ennis is like a batsman who has decided what shot he will play before the ball is bowled. So, when you allude to the incidents and labels that have come to define him in some minds - his reputation as a ''niggler'', the respected Nathan Hindmarsh describing him as ''a grub'' and the lingering ''Ennis the Menace'' headlines - his response is long and seemingly premeditated.
Ennis says there was a time when the criticism got to him, that he has surrounded himself with good people, that he no longer cares about what he cannot control, that he trusts the opinions of those close to him and not the perceptions of outsiders, that it is enough that he knows he is a good person.
''There are going to be people who like you and people who don't like you,'' he says. ''The way I play the game and how I compete for a small guy, the aggressive style of football that I play at times is perceived however people want to perceive it.''
But if the explanation is well considered, it should be unnecessary. Whether by design or circumstance, the public have got to know Ennis better in recent times. There have been photos with his wife and three children, Jack, Koby Fox and Randy, media appearances in which his good nature shines.
''I hope it has changed,'' Simone says of the public perceptions. ''We used to wonder why we had to do the interviews and tell our life story just to show people Michael is the person he is. Honestly … he is the nicest person in the world. He's also a footballer and what he does on the field he does for his team, not even for himself. I don't think he should have to justify himself.''
Whether people choose to separate the pantomime villain from the real person is one of those things Ennis cannot control. Meanwhile, the more interesting question remains: what stokes Ennis's competitive flames?
The amateur psychologist seizes on the obvious: a small kid, the younger brother fighting the odds in backyard scraps. ''A lot of stages I was playing up a few ages, playing against men,'' says Ennis. ''That does toughen you up.''
In his teenage years, the separation of his parents and his father's descent into alcoholism before his death in 2004 had a profound impact. When school friends went down the wrong path - ''smoking dope, drinking'' - Ennis, like his mentor, Wayne Bennett, learnt self-discipline. That is evident in the rigorous way he prepares himself for combat I the adherence to diet, the extra recovery sessions, the strict routine.
Playing for four NRL clubs - Newcastle, St George Illawarra, Brisbane and the Bulldogs - by the age of 24 might have drained and disillusioned some players. Ennis instead soaked up lessons from the likes of Andrew Johns at Newcastle and, particularly, Bennett in Brisbane.
Having excelled at club level and achieved his childhood ambition of playing Origin, Ennis was again forced to endure strong public criticism. When he struck Nate Myles during Origin III last year and conceded a game-turning penalty, some said he should never be picked for NSW again. That stung.
''But you've got to move on and move on quick, otherwise the game will pass you by,'' says Ennis. ''Coming into this season, I knew I just had to play good footy and take the positive out of it, knowing prior to that incident I'd played pretty well in that game. Sometimes you've got to learn the hard way.''
Ennis was criticised when he kicked on the fourth tackle with NSW leading late in game one this year. Queensland subsequently scored the winning try. Ennis was hard on himself. But he had a staunch advocate in coach Ricky Stuart. ''I like how he cares,'' says Stuart. ''He cares about his footy, he cares about his preparation, he cares about the result. He has made mistakes but they are the right sort of mistakes … maybe just from trying a bit too hard to shape the result. But he learns from that.''
Origin seems made for Ennis. The hostile atmosphere, the enormous pressure, the test of courage and endurance. As he anticipates walking into the Suncorp Stadium cauldron, Ennis gives the best clue so far about what pushes him. ''They are the sort of mental sides of things I enjoy in a game,'' he says. ''I enjoy those times when you are hurting and you test yourself to see how much more you've got left. That's when you test whether you are mentally strong and whether the opposition is strong. I enjoy that feeling of breaking people down.''
Strong-willed opponents do not like to be broken down. Thus rivalries are created, like his battle with Wests Tigers hooker Robbie Farah.
''No doubt when players are in the same position … between two competitive people it will always get heated,'' says Ennis. ''But I don't get drawn into personal rubbish … [Farah] was in camp two weeks ago. I shook his hand and had a chat to him about his trip to New Zealand … Mate, the guy high-fived me and shook my hand after we won that game [Origin II]. There is certainly feeling when you are playing against one another but that's what footy is. If you don't have that feeling, you shouldn't be playing.''
In Origin II, Ennis put a high tackle on Queensland forward Corey Parker. The former Brisbane teammates were groomsmen at each others weddings and are godfathers to each other's children. Parker did not speak to Ennis for two days. ''But we came around. He's been a good family friend for a long time. He's in one team and I'm in another and we're playing a game of footy.''
So what drives Ennis? ''If you want to know,'' says Simone, ''when he was going off [to camp], our four-year-old son chased the car. He stopped and Jack said: 'Daddy, I really want you to win. I really want you to beat those Queenslanders.' You know he'll be thinking about that.''
Read more: http://www.smh.com.au/rugby-league/...n-his-guise-20110701-1gv3l.html#ixzz1Qtyng2MX
