Hard Road - Tough thoughts on a tough game

While most aspiring authors would love the thought of their book being the most talked about topic in Queensland for a week, Webcke found out the hard way that sometimes it can be a hard road.

Just days before Hard Road – Tough thoughts on a tough game was due to hit bookstore shelves, Webcke had an uncharacteristic attack of nerves, and tried to have the book pulped.

His dose of pre-publication stage fright came down to a couple of controversial chapters he had written about the Broncos infamous nightclub sex scandal, and on former Newcastle and Blues champion Andrew Johns.

Unfortunately, Webcke’s decision to pulp the book only whetted the appetite of the public who had their curiosity piqued about what the former Bronco had written that could cause such a late change of heart.

The newspapers duly sated those appetites, quoting freely from advanced copies of the book and publishing the very chapters Webcke had been fighting to keep to himself.

With the metaphorical cat well and truly out of the bag, Webcke duly relented and agreed to release the book, arguing at least that way his more controversial thoughts could be read in context.

Ultimately, he explained, the reason he wanted to stop the book’s launch was he felt that the chapters on the Broncos and Johns were unnecessarily re-opening wounds that were on the verge of mending.

Once he realised he had lost control of the book, with the papers running unauthorised extracts, there was nothing he could do but sit and wait for the tempest to pass.

The kerfuffle eventually cost Webcke his assistant coaching role at the Broncos - he elected to resign because of the trouble he had caused, despite the club pleading with him to stay.

The whole affair was uncharacteristic of Webcke, yet at the same time, so typical of the former Queensland captain.

On the one hand, to see the former prop backpedalling and to-ing and fro-ing over whether to go ahead with the book was a surprise.

But his reasons for doing so, as ever, were genuine. His response of copping it on the chin and sacrificing his job at the club he served so well were of trademark stoicism

Hard Road - Tough thoughts on a tough game, is a follow-up to his best-selling 2006 biography Warhorse.

Hard Road takes over from where Warhorse left off, examining Webcke’s life in rugby league retirement after he called it quits with a fairytale premiership finale with the Broncos in the 2006 Grand Final against Melbourne.

Beyond the controversial chapters, Hard Road examines how Webcke hit a brick wall at age 32, struggling to come to terms with life after footy.

“I have to admit, I have found things tougher than I expected in retirement,” Webcke told fogs.com.au. “I don’t think anything prepares you for the void that is created by not playing and being in that team environment.

“I was talking to (Sydney journalist and Warhorse ghost-writer) Ian Heads about it, and he said ‘you know, there’s probably half a book in that’.

“I didn’t want to know about it. I’d just put the first book out, plus there was that coffee table book. I was worried that people might be getting sick of the sight of me.

“But anyway, from those conversations, it turned into a whole look at rugby league. We went to the publishers. They liked it, and decided to publish it.”

Controversies aside, it is Webcke’s typically frank thoughts on tough subjects that make this book so good. While he may have had second thoughts about writing them, there are probably many rugby league fans out there thankful someone took a stand and said what he did.

 “I do have some strong opinions on things, and if that annoys some people then so be it,” he said. “But if someone has an opinion, and it is backed up with some logical thought, then it is hard to bag someone for that.

“You might not disagree with the opinion they have, but at least you can see where they are coming from. If they present their case in a forthright manner, you may not agree, but you can understand why they think the way they do.

“I expected the chapters about Andrew Johns will probably generate some debate, and also the chapter about the off-field dramas at the Broncos last year.

“But that is fine. I am just saying what I think. When you go against the tide sometimes, you’re going to make a few waves.”

Hard Road – Tough thoughts on a tough game by Shane Webcke with Ian Heads, published by Macmillan Australia, is out now. If you would like a personally autographed copy of the book, you can get it online at www.broncosmerchandise.com/shop/