Bradman Best will draw inspiration from his former mentor Scott Dureau – the man who transformed him from a forward to an outside back – when he makes his NSW Origin debut on Wednesday night.
Dureau, who played 42 NRL matches for the Knights, coached Best in his teens and while the 21-year-old always appeared destined for stardom he believed it would benefit his development to switch positions from lock to fullback.
The move proved a masterstroke as Best has developed into one of the NRL’s leading left centres - the position that Dureau had always believed he would be most suited after learning the game at the back.
However, what had an even bigger impact on Best was how Dureau coped in his ongoing battle with cancer since 2012, when he was playing for French Super League club Catalans.
“He is a massive inspiration for me,” Best told NRL.com after going into camp with the NSW team on Tuesday.
“He has had a huge influence on my career, and you wouldn’t know what he goes through, with the way he holds himself.
“I saw him a month or six weeks ago and we were just having a yarn when I said, ‘what are you up to today’. He said, ‘I have got to get checked out’, and he was acting like it was nothing. He is the most positive person I know.
“What he does day to day, what he has been through and what he is going through, he is a role model for the whole of Newcastle, and he's had a massive impact on my career.”
A Woy Woy Roosters junior, Best joined the Knights at 13 years of age as a ball playing lock but Dureau quickly identified that his future was in the outside backs and suggested he move to fullback to help develop greater game awareness.
After working hard on his fitness to adapt to the aerobic requirements of fullback, Best earned selection in NSW Under 16s and 18s teams, while joining his father Roger as an Australian Schoolboys representative.
“Scotty was probably the one who gave me a fair bit of belief as a young fellow coming through the Knights system,” Best said.
“He took me under his wing and changed me from a forward to an outside back. It was completely different, but he gave me the reasons and said, ‘you are big, strong, fast and you move well’.
“I said, ‘okay, I trust you, I’ll do it’, and he helped me. I’m not sure I’d be where I am right now without him.”
First hat-trick for Bradman Best
Dureau said Best always had the talent to become an NRL and representative star but it was his work ethic that ensured he is now beginning to fulfil his enormous potential.
Making his NRL debut just weeks after his 18th birthday in 2020, Best became Newcastle’s second youngest player behind Sione Mata’utia but before doing so he had to overcome a series of knee, hamstring, hip and ankle injuries.
“He was the dominant player coming through in the junior ranks and it has taken a little bit of time, but to see him transfer that now into the top level is a credit to him and what he has done,” Dureau said.
“He was always physically going to be capable; he was strong, powerful, fast and he had all of those tools, but he is extremely diligent, his professionalism is outstanding and he has worked extremely hard on his body.
“He is just a competitor. His desire and want to be the best is always something I have noticed. Any time that he had not performed well, or we had lost as a team, he took it personally and I think that has held him in good stead going forward.”
Best elated following Origin III selection
Best has rugby league pedigree, with his father Roger and grandfather Peter Byrne both playing for the Sea Eagles, while he recently discovered family links to former Dragons winger Nathan Blacklock.
It was Byrne who suggested Best's first name after overhearing Storm GM of football Frank Ponissi mention the name Bradman while cutting the then Manly official's hair.
After a significant growth spurt in his early teens, Best appeared set to follow in the footsteps of Roger, who played in the forwards for the Sea Eagles and London Broncos alongside the likes of Tony Mestrov and Matt Nable.
Bradman Beast mode
However, Dureau believed his power and speed was better suited to the outside backs and instigated the move that has led to Best earning the left centre spot for NSW in Origin III at Accor Stadium on Wednesday night.
“When I first started working with him at Harold Mathews level he was playing lock but I think that was basically just so he could get the ball as much as possible and run over everyone,” Dureau said.
“We didn’t see him as a forward long term so we didn’t think that was good for his development. With his speed and power I always thought he would be a left centre but we played him at fullback to try to educate him on the game.
“At fullback, in my opinion, you get to learn the best because you get to see everything unfolding in front of you both in attack and defence. He played fullback for a couple of years and then moved to centre when he got to Jersey Flegg.
“At fullback you need to be elite when it comes to fitness and he was always going to be big enough, strong enough and fast enough but we wanted him to get a bigger motor, have plenty of involvements and learn not only how to score tries, but to stop tries as well.
“The way fullbacks play now with their ball playing ability, we wanted him to develop all those facets of his game.”
Rookie Reflections: Bradman Best
While Dureau left the Knights in 2021, he has continued to follow Best’s development and believes his Origin selection is just the start of a long representative career.
“The last couple of years there has been a lot said about him, I suppose, because he has been such a prodigy as junior and hasn’t hit his straps quite yet,” Dureau said.
“The club hasn’t performed, as well, so there have been some hard times but to get some recognition like this now is really good to see.
“He is still only 21 so I don’t think he has yet reached his full potential but to see him progress again and take another step forward is really good to see. He won't let the state down.
“I see him about a bit. I bump into him at the local coffee shop and we catch up and have a chat every now and again. He is just such a likeable young fellow, and he has worked really hard for it so he deserves every opportunity he gets.”
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