Heart of a Champion Read Online Free PDF

although he wasn’t a great drinker. He was always the life of any party. ‘He was one of those constantly funny blokes. He’d tell jokes all day long and he was a great practical joker. He was a great guy. A larrikin. That’s where I got it.’
    Pop’s genes, passed down through Noelene—who played competition tennis, vigoro, squash, netball and softball—also gave Greg the natural advantage of great hand–eye co-ordination. Pat provided the DNA for endurance sports. Pat’s family were outstanding bike riders, competing in major events such as the Sydney to Goulburn Race. Pat was also a fine all-round athlete: he’d been a runner at school, a beach sprint champion with Garie Surf Life Saving Club in Sydney’s Royal National Park and a rugby league player with the champion St George club.
    Greg was always small for his age, known to one and all as ‘Shorty’ and remembered for his boundless energy and enthusiasm in tackling every task. From the age of 3 he was a ball boy for his older brother Darren’s rugby league team, the Greenacre Grasshoppers. Greg would dart about retrieving the balls kicked over the sideline and bring chuckles from the crowd when he ran back clutching a ball about half the size of his body.
    In those early years, Greg was so small that he was rarely picked to play football. On the positive side, Pat took advantage of Greg’s size to smuggle him in a duffle bag through the turnstiles to watch the senior football for free. He did a lot of watching. ‘I was generally left right out. Not on the wing or in the scrum, right out. I didn’t get many games. I was like a flea apparently. When I did get picked it was always on the wing because I was pretty fast. But the ball would rarely get out to the wing because someone would hog it or it’d get dropped.’
    Greg’s horizons expanded, but only marginally, when he headed off to Greenacre Primary on the corner of Waterloo Road, about a dozen houses away. From the street, the school looked like hundreds of others, but if you journeyed past the stern two-storey main building, you were faced with a vast expanse of grassed playgrounds leading down to Roberts Park, a full-scale cricket and football oval. Greg was in his element. Here he and his mates would roam endlessly, playing Cocky Laura, chasings, cricket or footy—in a constant state of motion. He was an eager and diligent young student, but it was sport that set him apart from the crowd.
    Greg’s teachers at Greenacre Primary opened the doors to his perennially curious mind. He was a prefect and also house sports captain for Wattle house, which he led in their epic battles against Boronia, Blue Gum and Waratah. At home Greg was Justin’s guardian and carer after Noelene went back to work to help the family’s struggling finances. Pat’s printing business hit hard times and things were grim. ‘Mum and Dad both had jobs and I was the babysitter and cook from a pretty young age. I’d go straight from school to pick up Justin at kindy and bring him home. I loved it. Mum would leave out the ingredients for dinner, with a list of instructions, and I’d have it on the table when everyone arrived home.’
    Greg’s first big sporting turning point came in year 5 when, after showing some early promise as a runner, he was entered in the open 800-m (0.5-mile) race, running barefoot against boys who were one and two years his senior. ‘I won it! That started my passion for running. Actually, I think it all came from warming up at footy training. The coach would always give us two laps warm up. I would sprint it while the forwards would walk. I’d finish when they still had a lap to go and the coach would send me off again.’
    It was a big deal for a kid from year 5 to win the open 800 m. It did wonders for Greg’s self-esteem. Suddenly, he was in the spotlight and he loved it. Greg’s