Eels Blogs

No, not Wally Lewis. The other one.

“Hindy” explained to Clint Gutherson how Fox Sports had footage of the Parramatta utility using lip balm. In a game.

So, was it OK if, um, they took the p ... that night on The Matty Johns Show?

And The King said, “go for it”.

So they did.

That evening, rolling out said film of the Eels No. 6 requesting vaseline from a trainer. Then adding it not to knees, elbows or beard like Ray Price circa 1983, but his lips.

And all while somewhere in the background, Hindy and co cackled through accusations which are barely allowed even in such timeslots.

“But if somebody got a laugh ... perfect,’’ The King says.

“We were playing the Rabbitohs last Friday night and my lips were so bad, stinging, that I asked our trainer for some Vas.

“That’s it. But if people want to have fun with that, yeah, I love it.”

Indeed, it’s for this same reason Gutherson refuses to cut his wild, high school hairstyle. Why he likes toying, too, with a goatee boasting its own Facebook memes.

And as for ever giving up that moniker shared with Queensland icon Wally “The King” Lewis?

No chance.

For, yes, he knows this one comes with a smile and wink, too.

He’s aware Channel 9 commentator Andrew Johns, like Hindy, is having more than a little fun every time he compares the Eels’ Mr Fix-It to Origin’s greatest during ­commentary.

“But I’ve been called worse,’’ the Eels utility says with a grin. “Especially out on the wing.

“Every time I see ‘Joey’, he calls me The King and I’m happy to go with it.

“Because why take yourself too seriously?

“You do that and it holds you back. Holds you down.

“And none of us knows when we’re running out for our last game. Even our last training session.

“So I’m here to enjoy it while I can.”

And isn’t he doing that?

Unknown to all but immediate family 18 months ago, Gutherson — sorry, The King — has since risen up in a swirl of tough wins, bad hair and wonderful, freestyle footy.

Not only gifting the Eels a new cult figure, but the NRL some much-needed flavour.

Which matters.

Indeed, in a week when the NSW Origin skipper apologised for having nothing to say, and still led news bulletins, how wonderful this unlikely hero who listens to Smooth FM, collects NBA jerseys, even gives Twitter shoutouts to his favourite jockeys on race day.

Better, in The King you have a genuine footballer.

A fella who, having built his game on backyard matches against older brothers Josh and Lincoln, now a sparky and real estate agent respectively, is also building himself into the matchwinner few ­believed possible.

And for proof, rewind to just before the start of last ­season when coach Brad Arthur strode into Eels HQ and proudly declared to a group of gathered staffers: “I’ve got us Clint Gutherson.”

At which point, more than one set of shoulders shrugged.

Huh?

“But I’d had three years at Manly and hardly played,’’ says the fella who arrived at Parramatta with only five NRL appearances. “I’d been hit by three big injuries — bang, bang, bang — and ­nobody knew who I was.”

But Arthur, he knew.

He understood that somewhere beneath the questionable haircut was a kid who, after breaking a foot and then seriously injuring an ankle in 2014, still fought his way into the season opener the next year. A game in which he played only five minutes before — pop — his ACL went, and with it another season.

“And afterwards in the sheds, I was close to tears,’’ added Gutherson, who had already played Australian Schoolboys, Junior Kangaroos and NSW under-20s.

“After my NRL debut in 2013, I thought I’d made it.

“But then after consecutive injuries the following year, after working so hard to then get back for 2015 and having it taken again, it hit hard.

“I realised quickly how everything could be lost. But still, I’d like to think I rose up and beat it.”

Indeed, this is why Arthur, who was part of the Sea Eagles staff in 2013, chased. And why the head coach persisted when two, maybe three games into Gutherson’s new life as an Eels winger, the booing began.

“Oh, I was making some mistakes early on,’’ The King recalls. “So there were shouts, yeah. Calls for me to get back to Manly.

“But that happens. And in my time here since, I think they’ve come round.”

Haven’t they what?

More than simply filling any gap in the Eels backline, it’s the way this 92kg livewire goes about it, playing with the same intensity which resulted in him winning almost every available pre-season drill, that so endears him to Blue and Gold Army fans.

Taking up the No. 6 jersey after Kieran Foran walked out in 2016, Gutherson not only played himself into that King nickname late last year, but the job for 2017.

Then the Eels went and signed Mitchell Moses.

“Which means,” Guth­erson says, “I have no idea what happens next.

“But wherever Brad puts me, I’ll rip in.”

Which, again, is what ­endears him to fans. The hair, of course, helping too.

“I think you’ll find it’s actually coming into fashion now,’’ The King says. “Doesn’t require much work, either, just a bit of water from the shower.

“I know there are plenty of memes for it out there, too. My mates are sending them to me on Facebook all the time.”

And as for a favourite?

“There was one last year when I had a bit of a beard going on,’’ he says. “It was real patchy, so somebody put my head next to a picture of ­Beavis and Butthead.

“That was pretty funny. I’d like to think a few people got a laugh out of that one.”

http://www.dailytelegraph.com.au/sport/nrl/teams/eels/parramatta-eels-pivot-clint-gutherson-is-enjoying-his-time-in-the-sun-after-rough-start/news-story/c4efd4bc204b078a43c7faa8a573e34f?nk=39908e9c103a971ebb1b484d74949bda-1496376033