King‘s victory from the heart: Kent

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IT seems everybody has offered their opinion on toughness in the NRL now that you can no longer belt someone around the head five or six times or climb from the deck, sway like a sailor on shore leave, and head back into the fray.

But a toughness remains, and was revealed in all its purple glory last weekend. There is still a place in the game for men whose hearts, deep down where you cannot measure, beat a little differently.

It happened Friday in the minutes after Ben Teo and Luke Burgess knocked the dust from the shoulders of Justin Horo, 60 minutes in. The Rabbitohs led 12-6, against a Sea Eagles team outmatched and holding on.

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Jason King during Manly training at NSW Academy of Sport at Narabeen. pic. Phil Hilyard Source: News Corp Australia

Horo dropped the ball in the collision and the referee whistled the knock on and the packs came together for a scrum. Then Sam Burgess patted Horo on the chest while sticking a few icicles in his ear.

Wearily making his way to the scrum was Jason King, playing his first game since April last year when he walked off during the game against Souths with a shoulder that needed reconstructing.

King knew Burgess was the intimidator in the Souths pack.

More than that, he knew one of the first rules of war is that when you shoot the general, the troops will scatter, and that Burgess is South Sydney's general.

King walked after Burgess, into the meat of the Souths pack, and players from both sides came to separate them.

Sam happily chatted away.

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The Rabbitohs won the scrum and, second tackle, Luke Burgess took it up and walked into a one-man ambush when King hit him with a shot that brought a shriek from Ray Warren in the commentary box.

Two tackles later George Burgess took the ball forward and King put himself opposite him and went with the shoulder again.

Next tackle came Sam.

Burgess was a little wide for King to make first contact, but as the Sea Eagles defenders wrapped him up King got across to help bring him down and Burgess went to the turf smiling, almost to himself, and the moment the ball was played he was back into King.

Manly got a penalty soon after and as they kicked for the line Burgess called on King to run at him.

When King finally took the ball he looked up and spotted Luke and George first and, what else, went straight at them.

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It was tough and it was personal. It was enough that you hoped all those people questioning the toughness in the game were able to look a little closer.

Manly found something in those few minutes.

"I believe that won us the game," Kieran Foran told Nine's Sunday Footy Show.

"Just watching him go crack one of the Burgess boys, and then calling out the other two, as a player on that team, you just feel like here's a bloke that says 'Get behind me, I'm going to lead us forward and I'll do anything to get the win'."

Before the set was over Manly scored to level it 12-all, before taking it 14-12.

King said nothing after the game, and even when trotted out yesterday he praised his teammates, describing the Rabbitohs as a "tough challenge for our forward group" before praising the talents of the Burgess brothers.

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Hidden away, nobody knows the depth of what King went through Friday night.

He missed the 2011 grand final after tearing his pectoral muscle.

He came back in 2012 and his shoulder went this time, bringing on a season ending shoulder reconstruction, before he did it again last year, missing the 2013 grand final.

He has spent the best part of three years in the rehab group, unable to lift anything heavier than a fork.

And yet Friday night, in a game questioning its own toughness, he took on the Burgess brothers, who are some specimens themselves, with nothing more than what some call the great tick of the heart.

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PLAYER DEPTH A SALARY CAP ISSUE

CRONULLA'S performance against Canterbury highlighted an old chestnut in the NRL - the lack of depth at some clubs when injuries take a few players out of a team.

The Sharks were brave early, but tremendously outmatched after going into the game without Paul Gallen, Andrew Fifita and co.

It underlines the need for diligence in salary cap policing.

One of the NRL's favourite claims in its early days was the rotation of grand finalists and semi-finalists as the salary cap impacted on teams every new season.

That claim has disappeared in recent years.

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It's amazing how some clubs have been able to stockpile strong rosters, and can almost replace like for like when it comes to injury, while others lose one or two and suddenly look like they're trotting out a reserve grade team.

There is no doubt the leading clubs are better managed then many of the bottom clubs. But there is also an almost perfect correlation between the rich clubs and the top clubs, which is worrying.

There's no point having a salary cap if only half the league takes notice.

Join Ben Ikin and Paul Kent on NRL360 tonight to dissect all the big issues from Round 2 - from 7.30pm on Fox 1.

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