A decade of difference: Heighington reflects on dual Premiership success

He was already a Premiership winner with close to 300 games under his belt by the time the 2016 NRL Grand Final rolled around, but Chris Heighington recalls feeling more nervous than ever in the lead up to that game.

Success had come early for him back in 2005 when he won the Premiership with the Wests Tigers in his first full season as a first grader, aged 23.

But 11 years on, this time as a member of the Sharks, the experience was vastly different.

“2005 I was young and inexperienced, and it all got put on my lap straight away… 11 years later for the Cronulla Sharks, I knew what it took to play in a GF,” Heighington said. “It was different because I knew I had to work harder to get that opportunity.

“I was a bit more nervous going into the 2016 Grand Final with the Sharks, knowing it was probably my last chance at getting another title.

“Knowing how much it meant and how hard it was, I was more nervous than the young kids going into that game in 2016.

All I wanted to do was get that feeling again of winning a Grand Final.

Premiership winner Chris Heighington

“I thought in 2005 ‘we are going to win heaps more’, but it’s so much harder than I thought at the time.”

The two-time Premiership winner’s tales from his career come as part of his support for a national bowel cancer awareness campaign. The Australian Government and Cancer Council have partnered to encourage Australian’s aged 50 – 74 to ‘Get2it’ and do their free bowel cancer screening kit when it arrives in the mail.

It’s a cause close to Heighington’s heart, after watching the disease claim the life of both his father and grandfather.

The former Wests Tigers, Sharks and Knights player was on his way back home from his first campaign in the UK with the England national team in 2011 when dad Tom told him of his diagnosis.

Over the next nine years, Tom Heighington lived with bowel cancer before sadly passing away in 2020.

“It was a tough nine years, he faded away each year and it would always come back,” Heighington said.

“I was young at the time and it’s something you wouldn’t think would happen to your family, but when it does you soon realise that it can affect a lot of people.

“Through that process of dad having bowel cancer I got to meet other people who were going through the same thing and connect with them.

“I got the opportunity to share [my 300th game] with my dad, he was obviously sick at the time but the Cronulla Sharks really helped him get on the field because he was in a wheelchair at the time.

NRL legends join forces for bowel cancer

“For him to experience me after the game and get a photo, it was one of the best moments I have had in rugby league.

“I was just sort of halfway into my career [when he was diagnosed], which was tough because he couldn’t really get to many games.

“But he’d watch every game, he recorded every game and gave them to me a couple of years back.

“I played 338 games and he recorded every one on a DVD.”

Bowel cancer is the second most common cancer in Australia (not including non-melanoma skin cancer). Around 14,000 new cases of bowel cancer are diagnosed each year in Australia, however if detected early over 90 per cent of cases are treatable. 

Every week in Australia an average of 300 people will be diagnosed with bowel cancer, with 5,326 people estimated to die from bowel cancer this year alone (Australian Institute of Health and Welfare, 2022). Yet, 90 per cent of bowel cancer cases are treatable if found early.

Heighington wants Australians to understand the importance of early detection, and how easy it is to complete the test.   

“I feel like I have an obligation to pass on the knowledge I have about bowel cancer and try and bring awareness to people, to do the test when it’s sent to them in the mail,” Heighington said.

“The advice I would give to someone who just received a kit in the mail is to straight away go and do it. Send it straight back, don’t leave it there to ponder."

The National Bowel Cancer Screening program sends free bowel screening kits to Australian’s aged 50 – 74, every two years. The test is free and easy to use at home, and should be returned through the mail, as per the instructions on the kit.

Due to Chris’ personal family history with bowel cancer, Chris’ GP recommended he undertake bowel screening early.

“I am only 40 and I have done the kit 10 years early. It was in the genes of my family, so my two brothers and myself said ‘let’s go do this’. We all did it together," he said.

“It’s definitely easy and I didn’t find an issue with doing the test at all. I'm really glad I did it."

Heighington remains heavily involved in the game; he works with the NRL to help deliver programmes in schools, covers games on the radio, and coaches his son Rocco’s Terrigal Wamberal Sharks U-9 team.

Ahead of the Sunday’s decider between the Panthers and Eels, Heighington said that along with overwhelming joy, the winning side will finish the game feeling a sense of relief.

“It’s a feeling that’s hard to explain… it was relief, an amazing feeling, a feeling I have never been able to get again,” he said.

“It was just all your hard work you’ve done on and off the field coming together, your teammates all come together and embrace each other.”