Big League caught up with one of Balmain's favourite sons, Tim Brasher, who played in the epic 1989 grand final as a schoolboy and also distinguished at Origin and Test level through the 90s.
What are you up to these days, Tim? How’s life treating you?
I’m going well thanks. I’ve got two kids. One just started high school and the other is in Year 5 so they are keeping me busy with sport and different school activities. Most of my time goes into keeping them happy, but I love it.
Are they playing footy?
My boy is more of an academic to be honest. He went to an advanced learning school and is a really smart kid, which he obviously gets from his mother.
So his schooling days are looking a bit different to yours then. Tell us about playing in a grand final as a schoolboy back in ’89?
It was pretty awesome, I can’t lie. That year, I was hoping to crack the under 21s while I was finishing off school but it all sort of happened pretty quickly. I was really lucky to have a great teacher at school in Jan Davies who helped me a lot with extra tutoring and make-up lessons, so that allowed me to split my time between school and footy.
I’ve always thought that you’ve got to be ready to take any opportunity you get in life and that’s what I tried to do. It doesn’t always work out for people on their first go, but for me, I was lucky to come into a fantastic Tigers side with a lot of talent and experience and I just did my best to make the most of every opportunity I got.
