Nene Macdonald believes Salford can make some noise with their brand of ‘reggae rugby’.
IS RUGBY LEAGUE a job or a hobby?
For those at the sharp end, who rely on it for their income and must perform well regularly to maintain their status, it is very much a job.
But its participants are players, not workers. And every single one of them starts off by doing it for fun, probably with little thought of how it might become their profession.
Ultimately, as in all professional sports, results are everything and the pressure to deliver those results is no great fun at all, for players, coaches or staff.
Does it have to be that way? Are having fun and performing well mutually exclusive?
Enter Salford, a club which hasn’t won a major trophy since 1976 but has won plenty of hearts and minds by punching well above their weight in recent seasons.
First under Ian Watson, and now with Paul Rowley in charge, the Red Devils have confounded the cold, hard metrics like salary spend to compete with the biggest clubs.
What’s more, they are doing it with an expansive, risk-taking style of play that makes them great fun to watch – and great fun to play for.
Nene Macdonald believes it is bringing the best out of him. The Papua New Guinea international has certainly been around the block, signing for eight different clubs in his ten-year career to date, but has known nothing quite like Salford.
He’s made close to a century of NRL appearances, for Sydney Roosters, Gold Coast Titans, St George Illawarra Dragons and Cronulla Sharks, plus he’s had a Championship campaign with Leigh and a Super League one with Leeds.
Now 30, he’s been in blistering form in his first season by the banks of the River Irwell. At the time of writing, only Warrington fullback Matt Dufty had made more Super League metres than Macdonald (2,944 in 19 games, averaging 155 metres per game).
He’s making five tackle busts per match and, among regular back-field players, only Wigan’s Jake Wardle betters his average gain of 9.07 metres. Meanwhile only three players have made more than his 35 offloads.
What’s the secret? In short, it’s fun.
“I put that down to a lot of work from my team-mates, and that the style of footy Salford play is the style of footy I like to play,” says Macdonald.
“It’s authentic. I like to call it reggae rugby, where you throw the ball around, chance your arm, it’s like old-school footy.
“I think the game is changing to one, two, three, four, kick. I think we are one of the few teams holding onto the old-school rugby.”
Much of what makes rugby league exciting growing up is lost by the time players reach the top of the sport, Macdonald feels.
“I went to the Roosters and played a bit of footy but it was all about ruck speed, trying to control it, and getting to a kick,” he adds.
“You go from playing at under-16s and a game where it’s eyes-up and throw the ball around, to then losing that straight away when you go into the professional game.
“To come back to playing that way, I feel like a little kid again. You’ve got to be very fit to play that style, but it’s been good.”
With English rugby league, and especially clubs like Salford which struggle to draw large crowds, desperate to attract new eyeballs to the game, Macdonald believes it’s an approach that can make the action more appealing.
He says: “Our game is in a scary spot at the moment.
“If we want to grow to a bigger audience, play that style of footy that people like to watch. When the ball is going left to right, left to right, it’s a great watch.”
Most crucially, it’s proving effective too, at least in the hands of Rowley’s men. Since he took charge ahead of the 2022 season, Salford have reached one play-off semi-final, fell just short of the top-six last season, but appear well on course for the play-offs again this time around.
Some of their results have been exceptional, not least beating both Warrington and St Helens twice (including the club’s first away win over the Saints in 44 years).
After the departure of players such as former Man of Steel Brodie Croft, most pundits had Salford down for a bottom-three finish, never mind a top-six one, yet that is where they now justifiably sit.
Macdonald says: “From the outside in, yes we’d lost a few key players, but we had the coaching staff – Paul Rowley, Haggsy (Kurt Haggerty) and Kris Inu – and Kallum Watkins, a great leader.
“When I came in, I realised that getting along with each other outside of the field goes a long way to achieving on the field. If you spend time together, get to know each other, then you want to make that tackle for your team-mate, then you want to run harder.
“I think all the hard work we’ve put in is paying off. As a group, outside of the field, we’re close-knit and I think that shows on the field.”
Now it’s about securing that play-off spot, finishing the regular season on a high and making this campaign truly memorable.
“Comparing last year to this year, the top six is so close. These back end of the year games are going to be really important for us and every other team,” says Macdonald.
“You train all pre-season and do you the hard work during the year to make the finals. We’ve given ourselves a good chance to get to the finals and we should be able to get there if we keep playing the way we are. We should make some noise this year.”
The hard work starts now. Or should that be hard play?
First published in Rugby League World magazine, Issue 500 (September 2024)
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