What’s in the water at this NRL hotbed? We tested it to find out

There has to be something in the water at Gerringong when you consider the NSW South Coast town of 4000 people will have six local juniors playing in the NRL this weekend.

Hamish Stewart and Hayden Buchanan will feature for St George Illawarra against Jackson Ford’s New Zealand Warriors on Friday night.

There’s also Reuben Garrick at Manly, Tyran Wishart at Melbourne and playmaker Ashton Ward at Souths. Another Dragon, Dylan Egan, was having an excellent first year before he ruptured his ACL.

When asked what was in the local waterways, Buchanan said after his Dragons’ debut last Saturday: “I don’t know, but something weird is going on down there.”

In a bid to get to the bottom of the mystery, this masthead teamed up with Kiama deputy mayor Melissa Matters, council environmental officer Luke Lister, and Gerringong Lions’ rugby league coach John Ford on Thursday morning to conduct tests at the northern end of Werri Beach.

The results were, well, err, uneventful.

“It’s more a case of what’s not in the water here, and the absence of bacteria,” Lister said. “Enterococci is the main parameter that tests bacteria, and we’ve had none of that [in] the past few tests.”

To put the enterococci results into perspective, Maroubra Beach, in South Sydney Rabbitohs heartland, returned a reading of 14 colony-forming units, or cfu, per 100mls. That’s still good, but it has nothing on Gerringong.

Stewart, who played his first 80-minute game in the back-row for the Dragons last weekend – and was singled out for praise by coach Shane Flanagan – said: “I don’t think there’s anything in the water, but there might be something in the $20 schnittys at Crow’s pub that all the boys go to on a Thursday night. Sadly, I couldn’t get there this week because I’m in New Zealand.

“It’s certainly special playing with all of these boys.

“Me, Dylan Egan, Tyran, Reuben, we’d all go camping together down at Lake Conjola. We’ve known each other our whole lives.

“Most of us were late bloomers. I never thought we’d all be here now.”

Parramatta legend Mick Cronin remains Gerringong’s most popular league export and is credited for introducing the training and playing standards that have made the Lions a country league powerhouse.

Cronin, or ‘Crow’, initially resisted countless attempts for him to try his luck in Sydney with the Eels in the 1970s, and even when he did commit, and won four titles, the goal-kicking centre was content to continue making the long trek back and forth every week.

To prove how much Gerringong means to Cronin, one of his big regrets was having to miss a local grand final due to being about to go on a Kangaroos’ tour.

Scott Stewart, Hamish’s father, and Ford are also regularly thanked by the NRL players for helping them reach their first-grade dreams.

Most of Buchanan’s friends had to skip his NRL debut because it clashed with the local competition.

There was a special moment when skipper Clint Gutherson found himself in open space and only had to run a short distance to score, but he immediately passed to Buchanan to let him get across the line in his first outing.

“I knew he’d be out there, he had clear run to the line, and I thought, ‘why not give a young kid a dream debut’,” Gutherson said.

“I was looking for him straight away, and I knew his family were all sitting over in that corner of the ground. I chucked him the ball straight away. It’s something he’ll remember forever. There are a lot of boys coming out of Gerringong.”

Rod Wishart, Tyran’s father, still calls Gerringong home, while the coastal haven also claims Wes Pring and Lachie Weir, who are in the Dragons’ local grades, Nick Quinn at Souths, Cronulla’s Taj Ford, Newcastle’s Kyle McCarthy and Kane Graham, Parramatta’s Ollie McCarthy and Queensland Cup player Denver Ford.

Gerringong is very good at producing league talent. It’s better at returning pristine water results.

NRL is Live and Free on Channel 9 & 9Now

Michael Chammas and Andrew “Joey” Johns dissect the upcoming NRL round, plus the latest footy news, results and analysis. Sign up for the Sin Bin newsletter.