Making the Team (5 page)

“Aaaggh!” I yell. The thick plastic bin breaks into a hundred pieces as I explode out of it. I am Deadly D. My hair hangs in my face.

Justice looks down from the bridge. “I'll only come down if you promise not to hurt me!” he says, peering over the side.

“I promise,” I say in my scary deep voice. He runs down the path and hands me my Broncos training gear. Before I put on my shirt, he throws me a can of deodorant from his backpack.

“Spray this on, bro. You can't go to your first training session smelling like cat food,” he says.

Chapter 22

Meet the Team

The Broncos have hit the field doing some leg swings and partner stretches. Justice and I are late – not a good start. Coach Griffin sees us coming. “Nice of you to make it!” he yells. The whole team turns and looks. Shame! I look down at Justice. He's busy fixing his fringe with not a worry in the world.

“Yeah, sorry 'bout that Coach,” says Justice. “There were heaps of girls at the gate that wanted Deadly's autograph. He's better looking than Princey you know.” Scott Prince finishes a hamstring stretch and gives Justice the evil eye. “Only joking Princey!” he laughs. In a
whisper he adds, “Take a chill pill, brother!”

“Deadly, if you're late again, you won't train again. Got it?” he says sternly.

“Yes, Coach. Sorry,” I reply in my deep man-creature voice. Everyone goes back to their stretches. Justice walks off, sounding important and pretending to talk into a mobile. It's really his wallet.

Justin Hodges, one of the Broncos centres, walks up to me.

“Hi, I'm Hodgo,” he says, shaking my hand. “How long you been playing for?”

“Maybe t-ten y-years,” I say nervously. It's not the whole truth but it's close enough – add about five years. Justin Hodges is one of my heroes. He's also in the Indigenous All Stars team.

“If you don't stretch properly, you could injure yourself,” he says. I take his advice and Justin and I stretch for ten minutes until we're ready for training. He joins the backs and I join the forwards. Coach Griffin starts some hit-up practice. They give me the ball.

“Run at Ben!” calls Coach. Ben Hannant is looking at
me fiercely. His blond hair is dripping with sweat. He's huge and scary.

“But I don't want to,” I say. Coach Griffin takes his hat off and rubs his head in frustration.

“RUN AT HIM!” he yells. My monster legs take off. I hold the ball tight and slam into Ben Hannant at full speed.

“Ooof !” grunts Hannant as my concrete shoulder hits his chest. He sails through the air and goes over the crossbar and between the posts. If he was a ball I would've scored two points. Everyone stops what they are doing. The backs stop passing. The forwards stop running. The trainers stop filling their water bottles. All eyes are on me.

“HOOOOORAY!” everyone yells. They're jumping up and down in celebration. Coach Griffin is smiling. They can't believe the new guy has sent Ben Hannant flying over the goal posts. People are patting me on the back. Justin Hodges scruffs up my hair. Corey Parker and Corey Norman give me high fives. I run up to Ben Hannant who is standing now. He's rubbing his backside.

“Sorry, Ben,” I say.

“No worries D, good hit mate,” he replies. “Welcome to the team.”

Chapter 23

Sharing Cultures

After school, Justice and I are at the park again. Justice traded Mr Barwick one of the player's sweaty old Broncos hats for an early mark. He's practising his haka for Waitangi Day. I practise my chip kicks. I've been chosen to play in the trial match against the Penrith Panthers on the weekend.

“What's Waitangi Day anyway?” I ask.

“It's when we celebrate the agreement that brought peace between the Maori people and the European people in New Zealand.” Justice tells me there are heaps of hakas with singing and eating on Waitangi Day. It sounds like
fun. His dad is performing the haka, too.

“What's your mob's story?” Justice asks.

Justice's question makes me stop and think about the stories Nanna and Mum have told me. There are so many, so I tell him the most important. “Mum told me that the Prime Minister said sorry to our people.” I explain, “Back in the day there were a lot of wrong doings and some of the wounds had almost healed. Mum says we can try to forgive but never forget.”

Justice senses that I'm a little bit down talking about it, so he pulls a rugby league magazine out of his schoolbag. We sit in the shade of a gumtree and talk about this weekend's Panthers game. Coach Griffin has put me on the bench. Justice opens the magazine to the Panthers page. He's showing me their danger players. As my personal assistant, he wants me to play my best. If it weren't for Justice, I wouldn't be on the team. Lucky I can repay him by getting him into the dressing sheds, even if he does annoy everybody.

“See this fella with the big tattoo?” he says, pointing to a picture of a Panthers player.

“Yeah?”

“Smash him,” he says.

“See this fella with the blond hair?” he asks.

“Yeah?”

“Smash him,” he says.

“See this fella with the moustache?” he asks.

“Yeah?”

“Smash him as well,” he says.

“See this fella with the shiny bald head?” he asks.

“You want me to smash him?” I ask.

“No you fool,” he says, “That's the coach.”

Chapter 24

Lucky Dip

Mum gives me a call from work saying she'll be home late.

“Have fun at your first game as ball boy,” she says. “No falcons, I don't want to hear about you getting hit in the head with a ball.”

“Nah, gammin', I'll be too quick for that ball, Mum,” I reply.

Justice and I catch the bus to Broncos Stadium, except this time we've planned to arrive two hours early. I need to be Deadly D before I walk into the change room. Justice has given it some thought. You can tell he's almost as excited about getting me angry as he is about me playing. We go down to our hiding spot under the bridge.

“Put this on,” Justice orders. I do as he says. He wraps
the blindfold around my head so I can't see. Then I hear him pull something out from his bag. “No peeking!” he laughs.

“Not again!” I say. “Don't throw rotten fish at me!”

“Nah man, this one is way better than last time,” he says, edging closer to me. “You're gonna love it.”

“Love what?” I ask.

“This! But keep your blindfold on, bro.”

“Knock it off, you dropkick,” I answer. “How can I like it if I can't even see it?”

“Touch it,” he says, laughing mischievously. I carefully stick out my hand and feel something cushion soft, like a doona.

“Yeah, so what?” I'm not angry yet. Not even close.

“Push your hand in a bit more. See if you can find the lucky dip.” The last time I had a lucky dip was when Nanna took me to the Mt Isa Show. Something tells me this won't be the same. As my hands go deeper, the doona (or whatever it is) starts to get warmer. Finally, my fingers reach something soft and squishy.

“I think I found the lucky dip!” I yell. “What is it?”
Justice is cackling like a kookaburra. I tear off the blindfold and see my Cowboys doona at my feet. Justice has dropped it and started to run, crying with laughter. And that's when it hits me. A horrible smell fills my nostrils. When I realise what it is, instinct tells me to check the bottom of my shoes, but they're clean. It's my hands and the Cowboys doona that are stinking and covered in brown sludge. A couple of blowflies start buzzing around my head and land on my face. I brush them off and accidentally wipe the stuff on to my nose. Justice is on the ground, almost wetting his pants. If he wasn't laughing, you'd think he was having a fit.

“Stop it man, you're killing me! Bwahahahahaha!” he laughs.

“What is this stuff?” I yell at him. “It smells like poo!” Justice is now rolling around in the dirt, trying hard to breathe between laughs.

“That's because it is, bro! I got Fluffy to leave you a present in your doona! Bwahahahahaha!”

Justice's words sink in. Not only is my favourite doona covered in doggy doo, so am I. I even have a bit of brown
stuff hanging off my nose. My eyes start to see red and my hands begin to shake.

Aaargh! Look out boys and girls, Deadly D is coming out to play!

Chapter 25

The Big Day

The atmosphere is electric. Even though it's only a trial game, lots of people have turned up to watch us play the Panthers. From the change room, I hear the announcer tell the crowd that it's a sellout. I sit down in front of my locker and try to concentrate on the game ahead. Someone stands in front of me. It's a television reporter. He's sticking a microphone in my face. Next to him is a cameraman with a big video camera strapped to his shoulder. He's filming me. Standing behind the reporter and cameraman is Justice. He's furious.

“No interviews I told you! Deadly D is off limits!” yells Justice. The reporter turns around to see a Kiwi kid with a scowl on his face.

“And who are you?” laughs the reporter.

Coach Griffin walks over.

“I'll tell you who he is,” says Coach Griffin, “He is
welcome
– you on the other hand, are
not
! Now take a hike and let Deadly focus.” The reporter apologises and takes the cameraman with him.

Justice follows them out the door.

“Hit the road you stinky old toads!” I hear him say as the door closes.

Coach Griffin stands in the middle of the room. We sit in a circle around him. I nervously push my mouthguard in and out.

“No stupid stuff today guys, just keep it simple and defend our line,” Coach Griffin instructs. “This may be a trial game, but we still want to beat those Panthers!”

“Yeah!” yells the team.

“We have twenty-five thousand Broncos fans in the stadium, let's give 'em what they want!” he says.

“Yeah!” yells the team.

“And when Deadly D comes on, I want everyone running off him, playing support,” says Coach.

“Yeah!” yells the team.

“And when you finish today,” says a voice from the corner, “autograph your jerseys and leave them for me so I can sell them on eBay!”

“GET OUT, JUSTICE!” yells the entire team. Shame!

Chapter 26

Kick Off

The cheerleaders are waving their maroon and gold pompoms. The Broncos mascot Buck is giving high fives to the kids in the crowd. The referee blows his whistle and the Broncos kick off. Their fullback runs the ball up. He's tackled by a wall of players. After only one minute on the clock, everyone has already worked up a sweat. I watch from the bench with the other reserves. I'm super nervous but I can't wait to go on. Justice is in the stand behind me. Last week he offered to wash the Coach's car in exchange for a ticket near the bench. It's good to have my friend here.

Seven minutes into the game, Scott Prince runs on to a Peter Wallace pass. He steps two players and throws a long pass to Corey Norman. No one can catch him. Norman
runs down the sideline and scores out wide. The crowd goes wild!

“Try to Corey Norman! Broncos lead four points to zero!” bellows the announcer over the microphone. Rock and roll music fills the stadium. All the players run in to congratulate him. Scott Prince gets ready to kick the conversion. The ball boy runs out and gives him the kicking tee. Mum will be getting suspicious. When the TV cameras zoom in on the reserve bench, I hang a towel over my head and bend down, pretending to tie my laces. Hopefully Mum won't recognise me.

The Panthers score two easy tries. Coach Griffin is furious. I can hear him on the trainer's walkie-talkie. “Tell them to defend!” he's saying. He says a few other words as well, but I don't want to repeat them.

At the half-time break, the Panthers are leading 10 points to 6. Come on Coach, put me on, I'm jumping out of my skin to get on the field!

Chapter 27

Time to Shine

The second half kicks off. The Panthers have the ball and their fullback is tackled close to the sideline. Ben Hannant is looking tired out there. He hasn't had a rest yet. The Panthers bring the ball towards the middle of the field. Ben Hannant makes the tackle but he stays on the ground. The Broncos trainers run out to see if he is OK. Already players are showing signs of exhaustion. They are drinking water like thirsty dingos at a billabong. Hannant takes a gulp of water and holds his legs. He doesn't look so great. He must have cramps.

From nowhere, the magic words crackle over the walkie-talkie. “Put Deadly D on.”

I jump up and follow the trainer. I can hear Justice
behind me in the stands.

“Go get 'em bro! You can do it, Deadly!” He's screaming his head off, jumping up and down, and waving his Broncos flag like a lunatic. It narrowly misses the people sitting behind him. I turn around and give him a wink, pretending to act calm but I'm scared and excited at the same time. Have I tied my pants up? Do my undies show through my shorts? What if I drop the ball? There's thousands of fans at home watching – including Mum. As Ben Hannant leaves the field, I watch with my mouth hanging open. How can I replace Ben Hannant?