Dan man of action
BRETT KEEBLE
11/06/2008
THE bait was dangled, but Daniel Abraham, who knows more about fishing than Rex Hunt, was not biting.
After five straight losses with new club North Queensland, you just know the former Knights utility would love nothing better than to break his duck against his old club at Dairy Farmers Stadium on Monday night.
Not only could he claim bragging rights against some of his friends and former teammates, he could play a blinder and prove Knights coach Brian Smith was wrong for not including him in the club's rebuilding plans this season.
Surely, that is his main source of motivation this week? If it is, the laid-back back-rower from Teralba is not saying so publicly.
"I haven't thought too much about that really," said Abraham, who won a premiership with the Knights in 2001 and played his 100th NRL game for the club in his last appearance in Newcastle colours against the Tigers last September.
"Obviously it's a game I wanted to play in, but I'm not getting too caught up in the emotional part of it. I don't want to let my emotions get in the way of how I play on Monday night, for myself and the team.
"If I was to go and try to show Newcastle that they made a mistake by letting me go, and I did that by playing well on Monday night, then my performance will speak for itself. My preparation this week is just about playing well for the club and the rest of that stuff will sort itself out."
Abraham thought his NRL career was over when off-season plans to join the Melbourne Storm's Central Coast feeder team, then English Super League club London Harlequins, fell through.
The two-time former Country Origin forward packed his bags and headed to Mackay, picked up a well-paying job scaffolding at the John Holland coal-loader at Dalrymple Bay, and played footy for fun with Queensland Cup club Mackay.
But the 27-year-old former Junior Kangaroo still hankered for another crack at the big-time and snapped at the lifeline cast last month by North Queensland coach Graham Murray, who has since left the Cowboys and handed the reins to Ian Millward for the rest of the season.
Murray's controversial departure, and the absence of so many senior players to injury, suspension and State of Origin commitments, have contributed to a six-game losing streak of which Abraham has been an active participant in the past five.
The Cowboys have crashed from title contenders to wooden-spoon candidates in the past month, and Abraham said helping the team to arrest that slide meant more to him than any personal redemption.
"We're just trying to get through this stage of the season as best we can, and hopefully we'll get some boys back soon and things will turn," he said. "It would be nice to get a win this Monday night, especially against Newy. Obviously I'd love to get a win up, not so much personally but for the team itself to take a bit of heat off the club.
"The disruptions the club's had, with a few suspensions and injuries and Muzza leaving halfway through the year, it's taken its toll on the club, but I know that we're not too far off turning things around.
"Ian Millward seems like a pretty good coach, and we still have a fairly good side. I'd like to think we can turn it around and get a win up this weekend, for the club's sake not so much for myself personally.
"To get a win up against the old side would be a bonus, but Newy are obviously doing things pretty well at the moment, from what I've seen on tele, so it's not going to be an easy game by any means."
Abraham has been named at five-eighth, where he played several times in his final few seasons in Newcastle and also in North Queensland's 40-16 loss to the Tigers at Campbelltown last Saturday night, but hopes to have a better preparation than he did for the Tigers game.
He is still playing for match payments on a game-by-game basis and returned to work in Mackay last week, but he is negotiating with the Cowboys for a contract for the rest of this season and hopes to come to terms in the next few days.
"Originally I took four or five weeks off on leave without pay and work have been pretty understanding about it, but they've got a job to do too and they need me working now," he said. "Last week I worked all week back in Mackay then flew down to Sydney and met the boys for a 20-minute training run on the Friday arvo before we played the Tigers on the Saturday night. I think that might have reflected a little bit in the way I played and the way the team performed a bit too.
"This week, being a Monday night game, I was going to work all week then head up to Townsville on Friday and train with the boys on the weekend before we play on the Monday, but I've been trying to get up there a bit earlier if I can.
"With JT [Johnathan Thurston] away with Queensland, training without a five-eighth or a halfback until the end of the week is a disruption we could do without.
"I couldn't come to an agreement with the club last week for me to finish the year out, and that's why I came back to Mackay to start working again.
"I'm still on match payments, but we're in the process of sorting something out for the rest of the year, and hopefully we're not too far off coming to an agreement.
"Once we get that sorted out, maybe there will be an opportunity for the club to come up with something for next season as well, but for now, hopefully I can get up to Townsville and start training full-time, finish the year out, hopefully play some decent footy, and maybe get a win."
