Newly inducted rugby league Hall of Famer Greg Inglis has revealed the origins of his trademark goanna try celebration.
The celebration was written into folklore when Inglis scored the final try in South Sydney‘s drought breaking 2014 grand final win over the Bulldogs, but it was conjured some two years earlier in a phone call with his cousin.
“He goes, ‘alright, go and bring out something out’. I ask ‘what would you like’?” Inglis began.
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“He said ‘I want you to do a back flip’. I said I can’t do a back flip, I’ll land on my neck.
“He said ‘I want you to do a front flip’. I said no, I cant do a front flip, I’ll land on my face. Plus those two have already been done anyway with Anthony Mundine and Nathan Blacklock.
“So I said ‘I need to bring out the goanna’, and that’s how I started it.”
In retirement, he founded the Goanna Foundation, working to reduce the stigma surrounding mental health Indigenous and other at-risk groups.
“It’s a $20 bet that’s still going on,” Inglis said.
Inglis played 263 NRL games, including 117 for the Storm and 146 for the Rabbitohs. He scored an incredible 149 tries.
He’s the 125th inductee into the rugby league Hall of Fame.
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Inglis was asked by MC Yvonne Sampson if he could’ve imagined himself as a Hall of Famer when he made his NRL debut for the Storm against the Eels in round six in 2005 as an 18-year-old with frosted tips.
“Maybe – because the first couple of words Craig (Bellamy) ever said to me was to get out of his face and work harder,” he said to a laugh from the crowd.
“So that always stuck in the back of my mind … work ethic and keep pushing.
“I cant help but laugh at some of that vision. What was I doing with those frosted tips?”
Inglis also revealed the timing of the phone call from NRL football boss Graham Annesley informing him of his induction couldn’t have come at a more emotional time.
“When I got this phone call, it just brought back all these memories. There was one lady that was very special to me, and that was my grandmother,” Inglis said.
“She passed away on that Wednesday, (and I got) the phone call on the Friday. It was a pretty emotional few weeks.
“I tried to help hold the tears back when Graham called me. She was one lady I always thought.”
Inglis said he was also in the car with his parents when the call came.
