Manly centre Brad Parker always knew former teammate Liam Knight was destined for big things – except it was far away from the forward pack.
“I remember him coming through the ranks. He actually started off as a centre. He was just a really big centre,” Parker tells AAP.
“Then for some reason he put his hand up to play in the front row, was playing 80 minutes there and killing it.”
That was in 2015.
Four years on and Knight will now be aiming to kill off the Sea Eagles when South Sydney host his old club in Friday’s NRL semi-final at ANZ Stadium.
Knight made his debut with Manly in 2016, having shown plenty of promise developing alongside Tom Trbojevic and Jesse Ramien on the northern beaches.
But after stints at the Sydney Roosters and Canberra, he has only now emerged as a genuine first grader under the tutelage of Wayne Bennett in Redfern.
Before this season, the stocky front-rower was largely remembered as the kid who sprayed aerogard insect repellant in his mouth after being arrested for drink-driving.
Now he’s considered a driving force in the Rabbitohs engine room.
Knight is a long-time friend of Parker, whose older brother James was also in the under-20s team that lost a grand final to Penrith in 2015.
“He’s had a tough past. He’s been through a lot,” Parker said of Knight.
“But the way he’s dealt with everything is a real credit to him. There’s not many people that could’ve dealt with what he’s dealt with.
“Where he is now, it’s awesome. It shows the kind of character he is and I’m really happy for him. I’ve been watching him a lot actually and he’s playing unreal.”
Fortunately for Parker, his ex-teammate will spend the majority of Friday’s contest roughing it up with the big men instead of using his hulking frame out wide.
“I don’t know what he was thinking moving from the centre, although he was always a big guy,” Parker said.
“He just started to gain a lot more weight and obviously a lot more muscle. He always real fit, too. A bit like Jake (Trbojevic).”