An Interview with experienced great Danny Nutley

An Interview with experienced great Danny Nutley

Former prop Danny Nutley, speaks to us about his fantastic Rugby League career

42-year-old hard man Danny Nutley will be remembered as one of the toughest props of the early to mid-2000’s. Danny played in NRL for the South Queensland Crushers (in the Super League competition in 1997) Cronulla Sharks, Sydney City Roosters and for the Warrington Wolves and the Castleford Tigers in the English Super League. Danny was a prop who ran and ran, game in and game out and if he got knocked to the ground, he got straight back up and ran again.

From a very young age Danny started played Golf at Pine River Golf Course in Kurwongbah and was also around horses as his parents had some.  Danny got into Rugby League by playing with his mates as a youngster and the rest was history from there. In 1996 Danny had a good year playing for the Redcliffe Dolphins was signed by former coach (Both at Redcliffe and at colt level) Steve Bleakley. Danny enjoyed playing at the Crushers and played in every game bar suspension.

When the club folded at the end of 1997 he had two choices, go to Warrington or play for the Gold Coast. However, one of the guys behind setting up the Crushers, Darryl van de Velde contacted some of his former work mates who gave the up and coming prop a three-year deal. Danny felt that it was the right time to go over (as the Gold Coast offer was still up in the air) and follow his dream of becoming a professional footy player. “I always wanted to go over there I didn’t realise I would go over there so early in my career. I went over there just for the opportunity …. Daryl rang me on the Thursday, I signed and I was on a plane on the Saturday going to England.”  Danny played at Warrington for three years and enjoyed every second of it, playing 108 games and scored three tries

Danny left Warrington at the end of 2001 as he wanted to come back to Australia. At the time his teammate Tawera Nikau, who was good friends with coach Chris Anderson the coach at Cronulla and he found out that Chris was looking for a prop. Danny said that Tawera felt that he would easily make it in the NRL, so Danny signed with Cronulla and stayed for four years. In 2002, Cronulla had a slow start to the year before winning eleven games in a row to make it into the playoffs. Cronulla made it to the playoffs, but lost the preliminary final to the Warriors 16-10 in a game that was extremely physical. “That was a tough game, both teams took it out of each other. Playing that Warriors side hurt weeks after you would play them because they were such a big team. It was hard because you didn’t know what Stacey was going to do. They could just offload the ball, like Ali Lauitiiti and co could offload the ball and you just didn’t know what was going to happen.”

Every New South Wales and Queensland Rugby League player dreams about representing their state in State of Origin, something that Danny got to do in 2005, game three at Suncorp Stadium replacing prop Carl Webb who was out injured. Danny describes the hype around the match as an experience to be involved in. “You have a load of media hype. You have the cameras at training every day but it’s that intensity as you’re playing with 16 other greats players.” He felt that training sessions weren’t a walk in the park as they concentrated on making sure they got their heads around the plays they wanted to do in the game. They also spent time on field doing heavy contact sessions at the start of the week which got lighter later in the week.

After origin, Danny signed with Castleford for the 2006 season a deal that only lasted one year. He enjoyed playing there, the team struggled and unfortunately finished last that year. Danny signed a three-year extension to stay at Castleford however Danny left not long after signing the deal as it was a family decision. He came back and spent a year at the Sydney City Roosters in 2007, and then Cronulla in 2008 and retired that year.

The NRL is classed as the best competitions to play in and the Super League is always known as a physical competition. The question is, is there a big difference between the two competitions? When Danny was playing in the Super League for Warrington he noticed a massive difference in the two competitions. He felt that the intensity of trainings where different and also that it was the best vs the rest. “The competition was sort of very tared, your real hard games were against St Helens, Leeds and Bradford who at that time were really good as well. That was the pinnacle and the rest were easier to play against as the intensity wasn’t there.” However, when Danny when back in 2006 and played at Castleford he felt that the competition had improved a lot as “Clubs like Wigan weren’t the stronghold that they used to be, Leeds and St Helens were very strong. Warrington was very strong at that point in time because they spent a lot of money.”

Danny played in a time where the hits where hard, offloads weren’t really that strong in the game and fights happened from time to time. He feels that the game has got better since when he played as the skill level has improved in amazing amounts. He feels that’s guys like Paul Gallen, Michael Ennis and Dylan Napa would be able to make it in the era that he played it as it’s all about adapting. “it’s just different, it’s a different era and they would adapt to that era if they were born in it and they would make it for sure. Any NRL player would can make it to that level has done very well.”

However, one difference in the two eras is in the role of a prop. When Danny played he played with guys like Shane Webcke, Jason Stevens and Chris Beattie who would just run and run, even if they got knocked out cold they would get up and start again. Today Danny believes that there the likes of Matt Scott and Jesse Bromwich who play like the old props did. “They are just punching it forward and setting a good platform for their teams. That’s why they are doing so well as other teams are trying to do too much I think. Your forwards have to go forward before you can go anywhere else.” Also Danny feels that the scrums will go in a few years and it will be a handover and a play the ball. He feels that its ridiculous to see forwards like James Graham, Tony Williams and Cameron smith not packing in the scrum if their side is attacking.

Danny felt that the coaches that got the best out of him were Darryl van de Velde when he played for Warrington and Chris Anderson at the Sharks. Danny describes Chris’s as one “of the best blokes I’ve ever hung around. He was just straight forward there was no mucking around with him it was either this or no way. When he explained something he explained it really well. He was just a good people person who knew how to handle his players.”

Danny has played with and against some of the best League players the game has ever seen. He rates Darren Lockyer, Allan Langer, Tawera Nikau and Andrew Johns as the best. He also felt that Reuben Wiki was the toughest player he has ever played against as “Every time either you tackled him or he tackled you, you knew it was going to hurt”. Danny currently works at BHP in the mines.