Josh Reynolds has played in Grand Finals, represented his state, wears the number six for his beloved Bulldogs made famous by Terry Lamb, but all this may not of happened until his close mate Michael Ennis made a phone call.
“I was playing 20s when I broke my ankle. I was in hospital and when you play 20s you see the first graders and say hey, how you going,” Reynolds told Denan Kemp and The Locker Room.
“I remember I was in hospital and Mick actually called me. I didn’t even know he knew me.
“Everyone was a bit down, because I was obviously down and I’m usually a pretty happy person.
“To this day I still talk about it with him and he just says – oh mate it was nothing.
“For you to ring a young 20-year old kid that you don’t really know and he was someone I looked up to Mick, because he was at the Dogs.
“I loved the way he played and for him to do that for me, I’ll be forever grateful.”
Reynolds was playing in the under 20s competition at the time and was at a crossroad in his career.
The local junior had picked up an injury, was off contract and thought his dream of wearing the blue and whites would never become a reality.
“He was just checking in and told me to hang in there.
“I was in a bad state. I was doing my plumbing and to tell you the truth, I didn’t really like it.
“For him to ring me and say ‘mate, I think you’ve got something and for you to give it up would be a bad thing because you’ve got the talent and the heart’.”
The phone call from Ennis was certainly a turning point in his career and to this day, the talented number six has nothing but praise for one of his closest mates.
“Mick’s probably one of my best mates now. I still talk to him and I’m a god father of his most recent daughter.
“For me on the field I love what he does. He’s such a great leader. He leads with his actions and that’s what you want from a captain.
“I have based a lot of my off-field traits on him, because he is such a great family man, he’s such a gentleman and I hope to think that the team I play for love what I do.
“In the end he has taught me a lot of things. If your friend, family and people you associate with know what you’re about – than that’s all that matters.”
You can watch the full interview with Josh Reynolds on The Locker Room here!
