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"I didn't play a game of rugby league until I was 17. Never in my wildest dreams did I think that would lead to the NRL-ARL." Bai, who works as part of the labour recruiting wing of a Papua New Guinea mining firm, had plenty of reason to think this way. Though rugby league is the most popular sport in PNG, few players from the tiny nation crack the big time and even less come out of remote rainforest villages such as Ulamona on the island of West Britain.
"The money mattered far less than proving a boy could come from the village life and make it in rugby league," Bai said. "It's something I am involved in. I am trying to help kids in those regions find pathways through the system." He came from a family of 10 children (eight boys) sired by hard-working farmer Blasius Bai, who died nine years ago. Marcus remains in awe of his strength of character. "We were poor but he taught us the value of working hard. My brothers have been all over the world. One has a masters in science engineering, one was in the army, one was a banker. My father was a man of great discipline. He couldn't read or write or tell the time but he knew what the time was. When he started walking through our village to mass everyone knew what time it was and would follow him. "My mother was also very strong. She would walk 10km carrying firewood and a baby on top of that." Bai initially played for the PNG national side and developed an admirer in their coach Bob Bennett, brother of Wayne. He played for Hull in England and then one season at the Gold Coast Chargers. But his big break arrived when he met Melbourne Storm chief executive Chris Johns and signed a contract to be part of the club's debut season in 1998. He joined for $80,000 and turned himself into the ultimate bargain Bai. "I remember telling him we wanted to make him our Wendell Sailor," Johns said. "The AFL had cult heroes like Jason Akermanis and James Hird everywhere. We needed one and no one was going to give away that sort of player so we had to find one ourselves. He was terrific for us. A great bloke." Bai was judged Dally M winger of the year in his first season with the Storm and toasted a premiership in 1999. The true test of a man who makes a mark is to be remembered when he is gone and six years after Bai left the club, there is still a Bai Stand website for Melbourne fans and an occasionally spotted sign in the grandstand. "I was only 71 kilograms and had not played much football when I first played league in Australia so I was scared for a while. I hadn't even been taught to tackle. I had taught myself things by watching other players on television," he said. "When I saw Brad Fittler's step on television in 1989 I would go out and start stepping around kids in our village. I didn't even know what pre-season training was and I used to play the ball by putting it on its end and was told unless I stopped doing it I wouldn't play again." Bai was determined to give himself every chance and was furious with himself for once missing training after sleeping in following a big night out. "Coach Chris Anderson told me I was making good progress but that could never be tolerated. I had been drinking and they couldn't wake me up. I told him it would never happen again and it never did," he said. "I would set all sorts of alarms and even had my girlfriend (and now wife Heidi) on the Gold Coast ring me to make sure I got up. I could never have gone home and faced my family if it cost me my job. Not after everything my father had taught me." Bai has been enlisted to help PNG rugby league push for a 17th team in the NRL. He is part of a seven-member bid team that includes Bev Broughton, the wife of Gold Coast Titans chairman Paul Broughton, and Queensland Origin coach Mal Meninga. "It can work. We would bring a crowd. The thing we need is consistency. We can't do a big push one year then fade the next," Bai said. When he left the Storm in 2003 as a salary cap victim, Bai wished he could have stayed and he will follow the club's progress with great interest in tomorrow's grand final. "I could see the players who were coming through like Billy Slater and just wished I was 10 years younger. Billy was amazing. He smashed all our records at training. He was great and still is," he said. Courier Mail Sports Comments are closed.
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