Tyson Gamble’s game of NRL snakes and ladders pays off with first grade spot for Brisbane Broncos

“I like that song a lot. I know it very well. It sums up my NRL career to a tee,” Broncos playmaker Tyson Gamble says.

“My career has always been hard. It has always been tough. I’ve been down and I’ve got back up. I’ve lost my spot. I’ve got it back. I’ve lost it again … and got it back.”

That hit 1997 song, called Tubthumping, repeats the chorus multiple times and Gamble has been up and down more times than he cares to remember, including once that he definitely can’t remember, when he was knocked out cold inside the first minute against the Eels in his first starting game for the Broncos.

The Redcliffe born 25-year-old is a throwback in many ways. He sports a retro mullet and gives more cheek on the field than former South Sydney half Craig Coleman did in the 1980s.

The apprentice

Gamble left school to do a shop fitting apprenticeship for years when an NRL career was not on his radar.

“I really wanted to be a sparky though, so a mate who was a sparky got me a job with his company and I did that for two-and-half years before I got my first full-time contract with the Tigers for 2018,” Gamble says.

He’d only played a handful of Queensland Cup games for Redcliffe at that stage, including his debut where he lined up next to Benji Marshall.

Former Tigers coach Ivan Cleary was taken with Gamble’s play. The pair met in Brisbane and a two-year deal was soon struck.

“I had never experienced anything like it,” Gamble says.

“I’d been living a sheltered life at home where my parents did everything for me.

“I was still at work, so the NRL dream never really hit me until I was 21. Ivan told me where he wanted to take the Tigers, and he wanted me to be a part of it.

“Until then I thought a full-time deal would never come. Kids I played with – like Josh Kerr, Lindsay Collins and Jayden Nikorima – had been picked up out of school and had NRL contracts. I was never that player.

“Ivan was good for me. He gave me my NRL debut but I don’t think I was mentally ready for it at all.”

Cleary left. Michael Maguire arrived and Gamble was not in his plans. By the middle of 2019 he’d secured a release and was back at the Redcliffe Dolphins.

Gamble’s career was shaping as the ultimate game of snakes and ladders. He’d slid down another snake, but soon found the first rung of a ladder – a train-and-trial deal with the Broncos and then a rookie contract for 2020.

“A rookie contract was $60,000. I was renting and had all my own expenses with my partner,” he says.

“That year Covid hit and every player took a 50 per cent pay cut so I went down to $30,000. If you wanted to stay training on your own and stay in a bubble you had to take the pay cut, or you could get out of the bubble and work. Chasing the dream, I backed myself so kept training while I was earning $2000 a month.

“It was a difficult situation. It was like we were in prison. It was home, to training on my own at Redcliffe and back home. I had to stay motivated.”

Double trouble

Former Brisbane coach Anthony Seibold picked Gamble mid-season against the Storm for his Broncos debut. He came on at dummy-half and ran into a purple apocalypse in a 46-8 thrashing. Gamble’s 24 minutes on the park were as underwhelming as it gets.

“I had never played hooker before. There was no Queensland Cup in 2020 so I didn’t have any game fitness,” he says.

“My first tackle was on Tino [Fa‘asuamaleaui]. Then came Nelson [Asofa-Solomona]. It felt like the world came tumbling down on top of me.

“When things don’t go your way you are either disheartened and crushed or you learn. I learned you’ve got to stay ready, so when you’re called upon you are ready, rather than being called on and thinking ‘oh no’ because you haven’t done the work.”

He’d been knocked down a peg again, but finally got the chance to start at five-eighth against the Eels in the second last game of the year. The rugby league gods had other ideas and toyed with him again.

“Maika Sivo gets the ball, runs straight at me … and bang. His shoulder hits me flush on the chin and I’m knocked out cold before I even hit the ground. It was 54 seconds into the game,” Gamble grins.

“To get disheartened and go back into my shell has never been my way. Nothing in my career has ever been simple. I started later than everybody else. I’ve had to fight my way into every jersey I’ve ever been in, so getting knocked back a couple of pegs just meant I had to put my head down and work harder to get back up a few more. My parents have always been hard workers and that’s where I get it from.”

Turning point

At the end of 2020 Gamble secured a one-year extension for 2021 under new coach Kevin Walters. He was in the top 30 but fourth-string half behind Anthony Milford, Brodie Croft and Tom Dearden. In round eight, Gamble got his chance to start in the halves against the Titans for his fourth game in four seasons.

“I looked at myself in the mirror before that game and said, ‘It’s now or never’,” Gamble recalls.

After 15 minutes the Titans led 22-0 and Gamble’s career was all but done and dusted.

“We needed a big voice at that point and talking on the field is one of the things I do really well. That direction helped the team fight back,” he says.

“We won the game [36-28] and that night opened up Kevvie’s eyes and the eyes of people around the NRL that I can do my job and you will always get 110 per cent from me. It was a massive turning point in my career.”

Gamble finished the year well, signed a new two-year deal for 2022 and 2023 and thought he’d done enough in the pre-season to start round one alongside Adam Reynolds.

“I think I was banking on that a little too much,” he says.

“I was too caught up in how I had already played, rather than focused on what I had to do to get into the team.

“I had an absolute shocker in the trial against the Titans, one of the worst games I’ve ever played. I was so worried about getting the jersey I tried to be the man and do flashy things I’d never done before. When I do that I never play well, and that left a bad taste in Kevvie’s mouth leading into round one.”

Albert Kelly started the season at No. 6 but got injured. Finally, Gamble got another crack in round seven and the Broncos won five games straight.

“I feel like the players are feeding off the energy I bring,” he says.

“When I was playing for Broncs last year I was the game manager but when Reyno is there he does that. For me it is about simplifying my role and working off the back of him.”

Gamble has hot prospect Ezra Mam breathing down his neck now. Mam also wants the No. 6 jersey long-term.

“Ezra is a freak and will be an unreal NRL player but I don’t want to give up my jersey,” Gamble says.

“I love the kid but he’s not going to take the jersey from me. I want to keep it for a very long time.”

Meaningful mullet

It turns out that Gamble’s mullet has nothing to do with a hankering for the 1980s.

It won’t be around much longer, and that’s because Gamble and teammate Keenan Palasia both intend to have their locks cut for a great cause.

“We spoke to the community guys at the Broncos and there is a young boy, Nate [Wilson], going in for his last dose of chemotherapy so we are going to raise money for him and other cancer charities with a shave in June,” Gamble says.

“I thought I would look better with the mullet. My partner doesn’t mind it, but it’s not great.”

Sledging Teddy

Gamble is in the face of opponents all game. He yaps. He barks. He’s non-stop. It’s a real-life Jekyll and Hyde aspect of his personality

“I enjoy confrontation on the field,” he says.

“I guess for the past few years at Brisbane we had been pushovers. When things got hard we rolled over, but I won’t take a backward step from anyone.

“Off the field I am the complete opposite and I feel like I am a nice bloke. I will chat to you about anything and I don’t like confrontation. If I order food and it is bad I will just eat it. I won’t send it back or complain, but in the heat of battle it is different.

“If I can say something to get one over someone so they miss a tackle or drop a ball, that’s one up we’ve got.

“One of the best ones last year was when we beat the Roosters and I laid all over Tedesco. I ended up getting 10 in the bin in the last minute. He called me a reserve grader and was into me. I came back with, ‘Well, you just lost to a reserve grader’. That is one that sticks with me just because of how good Teddy is. He was giving it to me, but I guess he can when he plays Origin and for Australia.”

After securing his future until the end of next year, Gamble and his partner recently bought a house together.

“One of the best achievements of my life,” he says.

The process of the purchase intrigued him so much that he is now studying to be a real estate agent and doing on-the-job training on his day off with the Broncos.

Adam’s apple

Like the fighter he is, Gamble has needed a few good people in his corner to get where he is today. His former Redcliffe coach Adam Mogg is one of them. Before Gamble debuted Mogg would tell anyone who’d listen that Gamble was made of the right stuff.

“The best part of Tyson‘s story so far is his persistence, and an even better part is yet to come,” Mogg says.

“The longer he plays with Adam Reynolds, who’s a great organiser, the more we will see of his natural game which is his running game and offloads. That is the last piece of the puzzle to us seeing the best of Tyson.

“Players at the Dolphins loved playing with him and I know they do at the Broncos because he has a high work ethic and is really honest.

“The start to his career was unlucky but he took it on the chin, worked hard and is continually improving. You need guys like Tyson in the NRL who will scrap and fight for everything.”