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MUCH is at stake when Benji Marshall returns to the NRL.
Except for the hopeless romantics and the odd Maori princess, of which admittedly there are a few, few expect Marshall to return anywhere near the calibre of player he was some years back when he lit up the schoolyards with an attitude to his football that could be learned only on those same school playgrounds.
Instead of that man, though, most of us are expecting more of the player who left the Tigers less than a year ago.
BLOG WITH KENT FROM 1PM ON WEDNESDAY
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His pride was such he refused to give up the No 6 jersey, the old lion still marking his territory. He demanded the role of chief playmaker, even though his football was played mostly sideways.
He remained the driving force behind the club's culture, even though that culture was poor.
In turn the club was unable to be honest with itself because Marshall had long stopped being honest with himself, and so each year seemed to end in disappointment.
Then the players farewelled him last year in rightful fashion, respectfully, but once he was gone those same players got together during the pre-season and decided to finally get honest with each other, and make each other accountable, declaring that all the little lies that passed as excuses were no longer permissible.
Now the Tigers' football is as direct as any in the competition and their reward is equal first place on the ladder. They are a completely different team.
Marshall was diminished when he left the Tigers.
Benji Marshall walks from the field. Source: Getty Images
Never a physical player, his appetite for contact had reduced considerably in his later years, proving an old truth an old jockey once lived by: the older you get the harder the ground gets.
Sick of falling, the jockey also retired by it.
Marshall, instead, is coming back.
Yet this is no requiem.
It is a hope.
An understanding that the greatness of sport is not always the victory, but the song of redemption.
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It's Player's Night on NRL 360 with Willie Mason and Robbie Farah joining Ben Ikin and Paul Kent tonight at 7.30pm on FOX SPORTS 1HD & 1.
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Steve Waugh's last ball century, against the backdrop of his form being questioned.
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Danny Green nearly blew it all with an ill-fated decision to fight Paul Briggs, on top of several other soft choices, and with the legacy of his magnificent win against Roy Jones Jr in growing jeopardy Green made the fateful decision to fight Antonio Tarver and Krzysztof Wlodarczyk.
Both men knocked him out, revealing a deeper truth. Green went down fighting, and in the way he lost we finally got to see what some had doubted was there while he was tallying up easy wins.
That is an important less for Marshall.
Green showed you don't have to always be a winner to be a winner, just brave and honest. Sports fans are forgiving in the face of both.
That's what the Sharks are gambling on Marshall having. They know his talent hasn't abandoned him.
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We already know there will be glimpses of that talent all season long, as there was in his final season at the Tigers, and that at times he will light up the field.
It's the other moments that will determine his success.
Watching Marshall climbing off the deck, or playing tough in defence.
Playing with a little gravel in his guts.
Fortunately for the Sharks the job is already half done.
The humiliation of being sacked by Auckland, his rugby venture a failure, plus the unwillingness of Wests, his former club, to even consider taking him back even while describing him as a club legend, gives him no choice to buy into whatever system he goes to.
Benji Marshall in action for the Auckland Blues. Source: News Limited
It is the shake up he needs.
Fit in or perish.
Marshall is no longer a five-eighth. He is incapable of defending in the front line, and will almost certainly head to Cronulla as a fullback.
That gives him a chance. It plays to his strength; his speed and unpredictability as a ballrunner.
And fuelled by a legacy now under threat, he is in a similar position to Green.
Rather than pure performance, it will be the honesty of his performance that will be judged.
Is Benji Marshall a good fit for Cronulla?
Crowd at the game between the Parramatta and Wests Tigers at ANZ Stadium. Source: News Corp Australia
LATE START DIDN'T FAZE FANS
DID the NRL's scheduling of Monday's Parramatta-Wests Tigers game throw up a question, or provide the answer, for one of the great frustrations in the game?
Ever since the billion dollar TV deal was announced one of its failings was just one live game on free-to-air each week (Channel 9, Friday 7.30pm).
Some pointed out that by shifting the 3pm Sunday game to 4pm the NRL would have a second live game on Nine, but the NRL dismissed the chances of that ever happening.
Too late, they claim, given the darkening sky, plus the kids have school the next day, and when you cut to it the fans like it that little bit earlier in the day, and so on and so on.
There's a thousand of them.
Yet it didn't seem to worry the 50,668 who turned up Monday, when the Eels took on the Tigers at, you guessed it, 4pm.
It doesn't seem that hard.
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