The one week of the season when rugby league learns to love
When Mark Hughes watched State of Origin I last week, he wasn’t so much blown away by the enormity of NSW’s 50-6 victory over Queensland as what happened before it.
Hughes, who played fullback for the Blues in all three matches in 2001, noticed debutants Jarome Luai and Brian To’o moseying down the tunnel wearing beanies in recognition of this weekend’s Beanie for Brain Cancer Round.
Brian To’o and Jarome Luai in Mark Hughes Foundation beanies before Origin 1 in Townsville.Credit:NRL Photos
“It’s so important the players get behind it, and there’s never been a greater example than watching Jarome and Brian,” Hughes said. “They’re about to play the biggest games of their lives and they’re wearing our beanies.”
According to those in the Blues’ camp, neither of the Origin rookies took their beanies off from the moment they were handed to them at the captain’s run the day before the game.
“It doesn’t seem like much but when players like that get involved, it gets people thinking about the cause,” Hughes said. “Everyone just follows off that.”
This is the nicest week in rugby league. A time when everyone removes their hands from each other’s throats and wraps them around each other in a warm embrace in support of a worthy cause.
It’s also important. Every cancer is shitty but brain cancer is particularly shitty.
It’s the biggest cancer killer of children under 10 and adults under 40 yet receives less than five per cent of federal funding. Survival rates have increased by only one per cent over the last 30 years.
Hughes, a premiership winner with the Knights in both 1997 and 2001, hasn’t become one of those statistics and is hellbent on obliterating them.
The Mark Hughes Foundation was established in 2014 just months after he was diagnosed with brain cancer. His tumour was removed and he now lives from scan to scan every four months to see if another has returned.
His favourite saying is to “get out the good china”, because life is too short not to use it. It’s also too short not to help others.
Former NSW and Newcastle star Mark Hughes.Credit:Wolter Peeters
In 2017, the NRL along with broadcasters Nine and Fox Sports established the first Beanies for Brain Cancer Round dedicated to raising money and awareness about the disease.
Front and centre of that was popular Nine rugby league executive Matt Callander, who lost his battle with brain cancer in 2017 at the age of 46. He will never be forgotten, especially at this time of the year.
In the past four years, more than 620,000 beanies have been sold, raising no less than $11 million. It’s anticipated a further 175,000 will be sold – and $5 million raised – from this year’s round.
Helping that total in no small way are three Newcastle footy fans who simply decided they wanted to contribute by walking 150 kilometres from Sydney to Newcastle.
Dubbed “The Big Three”, Luke Alexander, Ethan Coker and Nathan Hill will be joined on Wednesday by a large throng of identities from rugby league and other sports, as well as media personalities, to walk from NRL Headquarters at Moore Park to the Sydney the Opera House.
The following day, they’ll march on up to Newcastle, arriving on Saturday at McDonald Jones Stadium before the Knights host the Warriors.
A stack of former players will join them for the trip. Hughes will walk the first 50 kilometres.
It’s a rare but much needed time when the game comes together as one, parking self-interest and agenda to one side for a common goal.
It’s a beautiful thing, don’t you think?
“It does feel like we’re all together as one this weekend,” Hughes said. “The thing everyone is going to agree on is they want to fight brain cancer. They know it’s a disease with no cure and they want to help. If we can give people something to focus on for a week that’s nice.”
That said, it can be an exhausting week for Hughes and his staff.
On Tuesday, he and his family flew to Glen Innes on the NSW Northern Tablelands to hand out beanies to the local community.
A local farmer donated $200,000 of his life savings to the foundation before he passed away.
“We’re amazed with how it’s evolved,” Hughes said, before laughing. “But by the end of the week I want to set all the beanies on fire.”
We better all buy one then.
You can donate to The Big Three here: https://challenge.markhughesfoundation.com.au/page/TheBigThree, or the Mark Hughes Foundation here: https://markhughesfoundation.com.au/.
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