{"id":139783,"date":"2021-10-06T06:37:37","date_gmt":"2021-10-06T06:37:37","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/?p=139783"},"modified":"2021-10-06T10:01:23","modified_gmt":"2021-10-06T10:01:23","slug":"cousins-text-that-summed-it-up-for-benji","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/?p=139783","title":{"rendered":"Cousin's text that 'summed it up' for Benji"},"content":{"rendered":"

Benji Marshall<\/a> enjoyed one of rugby league's great modern careers.<\/p>\n

He burst onto the scene as a young kid, became instantly famous and won an NRL premiership in only his third season.<\/p>\n

He would go on to play 346 first-grade games before ending his journey with a grand final loss on Sunday, having announced his retirement this afternoon<\/a>.<\/p>\n

But for all the fanfare and glory, the 36-year-old says he is "most proud" of the trail he blazed for his family members, and thousands of young kids growing up in New Zealand and elsewhere around the world.<\/p>\n

It was a text message from his cousin on Wednesday morning that made him properly reflect on what he has achieved.<\/p>\n

"I got a message from my cousin this morning that really summed it up for me \u2013 I've done a lot of things in my career, I've had a lot of highlights, proud moments, but the thing I'm most proud of is what I got told this morning," Marshall told media.<\/p>\n

\"NRL<\/p>\n

"That's I set a pathway for our family to follow that was different from the norm back home. I gave them something to aspire to, something to chase.<\/p>\n

"I made it possible for them that if I can live my dream they can live their dreams.<\/p>\n

"That's what I will be most proud of."<\/p>\n

Wayne Bennett – who brought an ageing Marshall to the Broncos and then to the Rabbitohs<\/a>, twice salvaging his career – agreed the halfback's greatest legacy will be the path he forged for others.<\/p>\n

READ MORE:<\/strong> Melbourne Storm trio 'lucky' to escape with lenient sanctions, says Gallen<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n

READ MORE:<\/strong> Matildas great reveals 'toxic culture'<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n

READ MORE:<\/strong> Brazilian football player arrested for kicking referee in head<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n

"I love what his cousin wrote to him today, he's right," Bennett said.<\/p>\n

"He influenced a whole generation of his family, but he also influenced a whole generation of rugby league people, particularly guys that played his position."<\/p>\n

Marshall has a simple message for the next young Benji growing up in his New Zealand hometown Whakatane.<\/p>\n

"Especially for kids who grow up the way I grew up, there's a pathway and an opportunity to make it, and live your dreams if you work hard enough," he said.<\/p>\n

\"Why<\/p>\n

"I had five shoulder reconstructions in the first five seasons of my career and got told to retire. But just out of perseverance, resilience, and having good people around me I was able to get through that.<\/p>\n

"One of the things I really wanted to stress today was no one has a perfect career. You are always going to have lots of ups and down, positives and negatives.<\/p>\n

"It's how you come out of those negatives and how you ride those positives. I'm really proud of how I fought back from all my setbacks, and I think that's a testament to how I was raised, to the values that my family instilled in me at a young age.<\/p>\n

"If you can bounce back and be proud of how you bounced back, there's more important lessons in your life. That's a very important lesson, people remember you for the way you bounce back."<\/p>\n

For a daily dose of the best of the breaking news and exclusive content from Wide World of Sports, subscribe to our newsletter by<\/em><\/strong> clicking here!<\/em><\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Benji Marshall enjoyed one of rugby league's great modern careers. He burst onto the scene as a young kid, became instantly famous and won an […]<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/139783"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=139783"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/139783\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":139785,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/139783\/revisions\/139785"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=139783"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=139783"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=139783"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}