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If a bloke’s nickname is Shovel, you know there’s a fair chance he’ll get things done. How did Stephen Hewson earn that title? He presses his flatter-than-somewhat nose and says “Shovel-nose”. Makes sense but, then again, this bloke’s also been known to dig deeper than most.
Steve is passionate about promoting the emerging para-sport of wheelchair rugby league. An affable and chatty man, he looks fit for his age, no doubt feeling the benefit of regular 30-kilometre pushbike outings. His left leg is a patchwork quilt of old surgery scars (“two rebuilds, six clean-outs – now replaced’’) – a reminder of his own brilliant but short career as a bush footy star.
He is the kind of person who long ago realised that sport is not a world of points scored and rules obeyed as much as one where human connection matters – where relationships, not grand final wins, satisfy most. The Bulli resident of 10 years can name people who helped him five decades ago, mentored him, signed deals with handshakes, and is generous in his gratitude and praise. He strikes you as the kind of bloke who, if you heard he’d become a member of the Order of Australia, you’d think “good on him”.
Steve thought the email informing him of his award this year was a hoax, pointing it out to his wife. She, possessing secret knowledge of his nomination, had to reveal that it was not.
At 21, and with national selectors taking note, Steve shattered his knee in an era when that sort of injury ended careers early. Little did he know in 1976 that all the sliding-doors moments and embracing of uncertainty to come would lead to now, retirement and the honour. He freely credits wheelchair rugby league players with being adaptable to change; surely he has shown similar flexibility when circumstance demanded.
He has grown with the game in Australia since 2009, refereeing at a World Cup, coaching and learning from peers and rivals after rocky starts in early internationals.
“We learned very quickly what we were up against … Being an ex-footballer, I thought ‘this is easy – just put the skills of rugby league into a chair’. We were going over there to kick butt.”
An utter flogging from France ensued.
Later in the tournament came a much more respectable result against the French as the Australians quickly caught on to what they needed to know. “In the end, we were helping Scotland – because they were in the same boat as us. We were training next to each other, working things out. And that’s a community.”
The game is popular with ex-military people, and there is expansion in Townsville, Canberra and the Northern Territory – but nothing regular in the Illawarra yet. Nearest games are at Menai, where participants include a nine-year-old and a woman in her 60s. Come-and-try days are conducted, and a full-time wheelchair rugby league development officer has been recently appointed.
“We’ve got the facilities here – it’s just lack of exposure,” Steve says.
“St George Illawarra have been supporting a team in the competition for eight-10 years – but nobody knows about it!
“I really can’t understand why the NRL clubs don’t use this as a diffuser for when, say, a player transgresses – so-and-so could be assigned to help with wheelchair rugby league for six weeks.
“The league should be jumping on this and just punching it out there – it’s such a positive community.”
Steve is only too aware of the code’s feel-good potential to wider audiences.
“At the last World Cup, Australia had a father and son playing together,” he said.
“The dad had been in a motorbike accident at 18, ended up in a wheelchair … the son plays football on a Saturday, jumps in the chair, plays with his dad for St George Illawarra on a Sunday – they both got selected for the World Cup over in England.”
“People see players in the chair and they sort of feel sorry for them but when they sit in the chair themselves and see how difficult it is, they’ve got to admire them.
“We’ve had NRL players come and play for 30 minutes – then complain about pain from little muscles in the backs of their necks they didn’t know they had.”
Steve has a bit more time to serve the code after retiring two Octobers ago from his post as athlete program manager at Western Sydney Academy of Sport (he still wears his work shirt), although Wednesdays are roped off for grandparent duties.
So well regarded are his skills that when he was made redundant 10 years ago, league legend Wayne Bennett was the first to call him with a job offer, but Bulli won out over Queensland.
“When we’ve taken wheelchair footy up there, I’ve always invited him, and he’s always come along – I’ve tried multiple times to get him in the chair to have a go!’’
Wheelchair rugby league recently forged another Illawarra connection by signing multi-code star Emma Tonegato as an ambassador.
The East Corrimal-raised player, now with Cronulla Sharks after two seasons with the Dragons, was excited to become involved after meeting players and their families and thinking “this is such a cool community”.
“I want to help raise the profile of the sport and get more people to play it,” said the 28-year-old, who heads the Sharks’ equal access program.
Congratulations all round
Other Australia Day award recipients in the district were Nicholas Weller (Figtree, police work), Nuala Williams (West Wollongong, youth choirs), David Stanton (Mt Pleasant, gardens founder), Warwick Shanks (Jamberoo, business/volunteering), Lorraine Mairinger (Kangaroo Valley, community service), Valda Brunker (Minnamurra, sporting groups), Sarah Neill (Wollongong, youth/community), Beverley Kerr (Corrimal, social welfare), Buddhima Indraratna (Albion Park, civil engineering) and Wayne Morris (Avondale, community service).