Harden man Ben Shea is continuing his top-flight career by teaming up with the Diesels just an hour’s drive from his home town after playing for Albi in the French League.
The Junee Diesels have faithful are building up anticipation for Saturday, with the announcement that seasoned rugby league veteran Ben Shea will be making his debut in the iconic blue and gold of the Diesels against the Bulldogs.
Shea has plenty of feathers in his cap, perhaps most notably his recent Grand Final win with the Albi Tigers in France, but other notable career movements include a 2014-2016 stint with Wynnum Manly where he was coached by the late Paul Green who would go on to coach the North Queensland Cowboys to Telstra Premiership glory, as well as stints at Ipswich and Redcliffe before heading back to Wynnum Manly and finally his trip to France.
Shea says he’s excited to join the Diesels and that interim head coach Damian Willis has made his transition seamless.
“He’s (Damian Willis) been running a tight ship, a lot of credit has got to go to him. We’re just coming in on the back end of what he’s been doing, he’s had a few health scares and Jordan Walker and Daniel Foley have stepped up to help out as well. That kind of makes it a bit easier with us coming in midway through the season.”
“They all work well, that’s probably a bit different to everything I’ve been a part of and I’ve experienced before, like usually it’s just the one team where you train with the first grade and first grade do their things, but I guess then with the country footy everyone works in together from the eighteens to the reserve grade to first grade, everyone kind of chips in and does what needs to be done.
“I’m not going to say it’s surprising, but it impressed me about the club, especially what Willo is doing there.
“Footy-wise, I probably learned a fair bit in Australia through my time here, over there (in France), I guess you just learn how people do things differently and just because you’ve done it one way most your life doesn’t mean it’s always the right way, so you just got to work in and adjust to people around you and do the best in your environment, so I guess that’s probably one of the main things I learnt in France, and that’s probably going to help me coming here because the majority of the time I’ve been in kind of professional or semi-professional setups, so then again, going to France and then coming back here to country footy where guys are working all the time and footy is not your number one priority. So just try to work in and still do the best you can with what you have got.
“I played with Dredin at Wynnham for a bit; when I came back from my first stint in France. He was at Wynnham, so I played with him a little bit there, and then he came over and was at the club, closest to us about 40, 45 minutes away. Chase knew him as well from New Zealand. We just kind of caught up for a coffee at one point once Chase and I had confirmed we were coming back and we asked him if he would be keen and he was.
“He’s a great signing and has proven that so far, he had a bit of an injury before too, so now he’s had a couple of games back he will probably start hitting his straps coming into the back end of the season and he will be handy for us. Chase was here last year, he’s coming back as well soon.
“Adding to what the boys have already got, it should be a handy team coming into the back end of the year.
“The plan regardless of who we play is to win, even if we play guys that are lower down on the ladder, we need to play well, our for and against isn’t good at the moment. Even in the games where we’re expected to win or we think we have a good chance of winning, we need to play well to help with our for and against. When we play the teams further up the table it’s going to be a good battle and we need to pick up those games as well. We can’t afford to drop too many more games now. The overall thought is if we can get everyone on the park with the four new fellas, myself included, what the Junee boys have already got there; and they’ve got some quality there already, then we can give it a pretty good shake coming into the back end of the season.
“This is the first time I’ve coached. Probably all the other teams I’ve been at the captain-coach role isn’t a thing, you’re under a coach, as well as having a leadership group whereas being in France we have had a fair bit of input in the team, but not really to the extent of a captain-coach.
“I will be learning as I’m going as well, but with Willo there it has helped out a lot, even just to begin.
“I’ve had the privilege of playing under great coaches, such as the great man Paul Green, I had three or four years under him, he was very good and we learned a lot from him, and we had the late great Graham Murray, we had him for a year at Wynnham. He had a pretty good coaching career himself, a very smart guy, and then I went for a couple of years out at Ipswich with Ben and Shane Walker. They had a different approach to the game, so it was good playing under them. I’ve had a pretty good scope of coaches throughout my career, which I’m lucky to say.
“I finished up at Ipswich in 2019 and the Walker brothers finished up there as well.
“Playing Queensland Cup and similar competitions, it’s faster in Australia, but in saying that the big games in France when you get to the semi-finals and finals, they’re on a similar level. Week to week unless it’s a big game versus a rival, your week to week your speed is not going to be there, but just a different style, you are playing winter over there and a lot of the time the fields are a bit slower so the speed is not there but the physicality’s, they’re pretty physical over there, and there’s a lot of Aussies and Kiwis, NRL players and ex-Super League players over there, so it does get quite physical. The skill level is pretty high.
“My first year over there was 2020 it was COVID so there were no crowds, so I didn’t get to experience it the first year. The last two years, I’ve gone back the crowds have been insane they get behind it and even though rugby league is not huge in France and it’s just in the South, they are rugby league towns and that’s their team and everyone gets out and supports them.
“We were getting between 4 and 6,000 people to our home matches and they go pretty crazy, so it’s pretty big for over there, like the Cattle in Australia sometimes where are only getting 10,000 for their Super League games. We were drawing quite a few in a small stadium, it’s a pretty good atmosphere.
“It’s good. We were gone for two years at the last stint and not coming home, so we didn’t get to see too many people at all, so it’s good to get back and see everyone and to get back into a little bit.”
Elsewhere in Group 9, the Young Cherrypickers’ tough run of games continues as they travel to Wagga to play the Kangaroos in a Grand Final rematch, Gundagai continues their road trip, this time to South City, Tumut hosts the Wagga Brothers and Temora will hope to build off their impressive win against Young when they host Albury.
Group 9 Ladder.
1. Wagga Kangaroos, 14pts, 238.
2. Temora Dragons, 10pts, 118.
3. Gundagai Tigers, 10pts, 72.
4. Tumut Blues, 9pts, -26.
5. Young Cherrypickers, 8pts, 124.
6. Albury Thunder, 7pts, 52.
7. South City Bulls, 4pts, -62.
8. Cootamundra Bulldogs, 4pts, -74.
9. Junee Diesels, 4pts, -84.
10. Wagga Brothers, 0pts, -358.
-Tully Potts
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