Berkeley_Eagle
Current Status: 24/7 Manly Fan
League enigma Jamie Lyon has regrets
By Nick Walshaw | July 04, 2008
http://www.news.com.au/dailytelegraph/spor...5006066,00.html
JAMIE Lyon was gone only a couple of days when St Helens officials decided to check his house. One final sweep, they said, before the new tenants moved in.
And so the staffers shifted from room to room. Expecting to find a forgotten shoe, club tie, maybe some toy cars the two boys had left behind.
"But mate," laughs fellow Saints import Jason Hooper, "they walked into one room and found his Man of Steel trophy.
"No one could believe it was sitting there. Like an NRL player forgetting his Dally M.
"Killer, though, wasn't fussed. But we posted it back to him anyway."
Trying to unravel the Jamie Lyon mystery is akin to pimply schoolboys tangling with that first bra.
Lyon is enigmatic. Problematic. Covered in more question marks than a Monopoly Chance deck.
Because who forgets their Man of Steel trophy? Who asks to stand down from Origin? And who forgoes a $250,000 NRL contract to call bingo at the Wee Waa bowling club?
Since his 2008 Origin snub was made public, Lyon has been cracked, criticised and crucified.
Copping a bigger pizzling than even Clint Newton when he knocked back Miss Universe.
But why?
When did putting family first make you Judas? Or leaving Sydney for the bush make you a weirdo?
Compare Lyon with a dreadlocked Andrew Symonds, who uses his Bacon Busters persona to flog Fords, Skins and Solo cans. As marketable, the latest Sweeney survey insists, as Cathy Freeman.
"But I think Killer is happy with the question marks," says good mate Gareth Cleal, the son of Kangaroo cult figure Noel and best man at Lyon's February wedding.
"So if you're trying to ex- plain him . . . yeah, it'll take some pages."
To truly understand the human Sudoku that is Lyon, one must travel the 600km of bitumen to Wee Waa in west- ern NSW.
Because if you can't imagine life out here among the dust, flies and endless cotton, you'll never understand those who do. Enjoying their two pubs, one servo and the famed artesian spring where, according to local whispers, more than half the town's 2000 residents have been conceived.
"Jamie not playing Origin, it doesn't surprise us, no," Wee Waa cocky Don Cruikshank explains. "Take our 2004 premiership side, it had four boys who signed in Sydney but were home after only weeks.
"Because blokes like Jamie, they never lose the smell of gum leaves."
Which is no doubt why Lyon remains the only Super League signing to have arrived in England handcuffed - somehow convinced a crumpled, photocopied document was all Customs required for his visa.
"Yeah, I can still remember that piece of paper emerging," Cleal Jr laughs. "I was standing there thinking 'Oh, they're not gonna like that, Killer'."
They didn't. That's why eight hours of interrogation and the lock-up followed.
Manly recruiter Noel Cleal reckons Wee Waa is also responsible for Lyon's tenacity.
One that has "95 per cent of pig catchers scared of the bloody things . . . and Jamie among the rest".
Lyon bought his Newport home sight unseen. And despite being a keen golfer, told Saints
By Nick Walshaw | July 04, 2008
http://www.news.com.au/dailytelegraph/spor...5006066,00.html
JAMIE Lyon was gone only a couple of days when St Helens officials decided to check his house. One final sweep, they said, before the new tenants moved in.
And so the staffers shifted from room to room. Expecting to find a forgotten shoe, club tie, maybe some toy cars the two boys had left behind.
"But mate," laughs fellow Saints import Jason Hooper, "they walked into one room and found his Man of Steel trophy.
"No one could believe it was sitting there. Like an NRL player forgetting his Dally M.
"Killer, though, wasn't fussed. But we posted it back to him anyway."
Trying to unravel the Jamie Lyon mystery is akin to pimply schoolboys tangling with that first bra.
Lyon is enigmatic. Problematic. Covered in more question marks than a Monopoly Chance deck.
Because who forgets their Man of Steel trophy? Who asks to stand down from Origin? And who forgoes a $250,000 NRL contract to call bingo at the Wee Waa bowling club?
Since his 2008 Origin snub was made public, Lyon has been cracked, criticised and crucified.
Copping a bigger pizzling than even Clint Newton when he knocked back Miss Universe.
But why?
When did putting family first make you Judas? Or leaving Sydney for the bush make you a weirdo?
Compare Lyon with a dreadlocked Andrew Symonds, who uses his Bacon Busters persona to flog Fords, Skins and Solo cans. As marketable, the latest Sweeney survey insists, as Cathy Freeman.
"But I think Killer is happy with the question marks," says good mate Gareth Cleal, the son of Kangaroo cult figure Noel and best man at Lyon's February wedding.
"So if you're trying to ex- plain him . . . yeah, it'll take some pages."
To truly understand the human Sudoku that is Lyon, one must travel the 600km of bitumen to Wee Waa in west- ern NSW.
Because if you can't imagine life out here among the dust, flies and endless cotton, you'll never understand those who do. Enjoying their two pubs, one servo and the famed artesian spring where, according to local whispers, more than half the town's 2000 residents have been conceived.
"Jamie not playing Origin, it doesn't surprise us, no," Wee Waa cocky Don Cruikshank explains. "Take our 2004 premiership side, it had four boys who signed in Sydney but were home after only weeks.
"Because blokes like Jamie, they never lose the smell of gum leaves."
Which is no doubt why Lyon remains the only Super League signing to have arrived in England handcuffed - somehow convinced a crumpled, photocopied document was all Customs required for his visa.
"Yeah, I can still remember that piece of paper emerging," Cleal Jr laughs. "I was standing there thinking 'Oh, they're not gonna like that, Killer'."
They didn't. That's why eight hours of interrogation and the lock-up followed.
Manly recruiter Noel Cleal reckons Wee Waa is also responsible for Lyon's tenacity.
One that has "95 per cent of pig catchers scared of the bloody things . . . and Jamie among the rest".
Lyon bought his Newport home sight unseen. And despite being a keen golfer, told Saints
