Cameron George is the Vodafone NZ Warriors' chief. Murray Kirkness is the NZ Herald editor. But both Aussies began their working careers in Tamworth. Former sports editor with The Northern Daily Leader, GEOFF NEWLING, worked with Murray at this newspaper, and reported on and worked with Cameron in the local racing industry. He ran into the two ex-Tamworthians during the recent Auckland Cup and found two dedicated, determined and happy young men.
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It's amazing, Cameron George reckons, that Murray is from Manilla. "Can't believe it," the NZ Warriors chief executive laughs about the NZ Herald editor's early hometown.
Cameron was born and raised in Casino and went to school at St John's College, Woodlawn. Murray was born in Parramatta but grew up in Manilla and went to the central school there, then Farrer Memorial Agricultural High School.
Some of Murray's earliest and fondest memories are of going with his father to watch the Manilla Tigers at the local showground. "I thought they were giants."
After high school, he started a cadetship at the Tamworth Times, a weekly paper owned and run by Frank Crosling - "a great man".
"He took a punt on me, because I had absolutely no idea what I was doing - I was still 17 and had just left school when I started as a cadet. I'm thankful for his patience. It was a great place to start, because I learnt so much, not just about journalism but newspapers ... It really was the foundation of my career and, looking back, I owe a debt of gratitude to everyone who worked there."
The Times was sold to the The Northern Daily Leader's owners, and Murray said he'd "never forgotten the camaraderie - and competition".
"You were a good boss, Ann Newling was a terrific editor, Tony Gillies taught me lots. Michael Carroll (now the managing editor of the Daily Telegraph) was the same age as me and was a star on the news side of things. Murray Hartin was always entertaining and was clever with words and ideas. Dean Broderick and Steve 'Bluto' Young were big influences, too. So were lots of others; too many to mention. And, outside of work, Tamworth was a splendid place to live."
'Love to visit more'
Cameron has the same affection for Tamworth, despite spending just four years in the Country Music Capital: "I have many friends that live there. I'd love to visit more often if time allowed."
He arrived as a 21-year-old "farmed out to work at the HNWRA from Sydney" as a cadet, and also played rugby league with West Tamworth Lions.
"I loved playing for Wests - a good, fun club, a real family club," he said.
"I was fortunate enough to play with a great bunch of guys and Chuce (Tony La Chiusa), our coach, was well before his time, a very smart coach.
"We won a reserve-grade grand final and got beat in the 1999 first-grade Grand Final by Moree."
His time in the HNWRA stewards was memorable, too. Kevin Williams was the chief steward when he first arrived, but then current chief steward Shane Cullen arrived. He was "fantastic to work with".
"He is still a mentor and close friend of mine to this day, and quite often I seek his advice. He's usually spot-on."
In the early 2000s, Cameron returned to the North Coast to open a real estate agency. However, his heart was always in racing and, when he received a call from New Zealand, his life changed again.
"The opportunity to help change the industry was too good to refuse," he said.
"It was a challenge, very different. The culture of the NZ industry was unlike Australia, and it was a big job trying to change mentality and culture. Thankfully over time we made some major inroads."
In 2011, he was appointed the chief executive of Auckland Racing Club, "a great opportunity".
"I was a little unsure at first given the size and shape of the business, but I quickly adapted and got on with the job. I learnt so much in a very fast-moving and versatile business."
However, Eric Watson, owner of the NZ Warriors, came knocking to offer him the top position - at a dire time.
"I took over with one game remaining in the 2017 season and we finished with nine straight losses. The club was doing it pretty tough," he said.
"It's been a great journey so far and I'm extremely fortunate, but it's very, very different to anything I've experienced before. As a fan of rugby league, I didn't appreciate the size of the sport and how significant the scrutiny from the media and fans was until I became CEO. It's day in, day out, 24/7, and it can be both relentless and ruthless at times.
"That aside, the challenge of trying to win a NRL premiership with the Vodafone Warriors drives me every day. The environment is fast-paced with high stakes and pressure. Everything we do as a club needs to be done with 100 per cent effort to get it right."
A 'terrific' 15 years
Murray, 51, is married to Marion with three sons: Luke, 21, Jake 20, and Will, 17.
Marion is from Otago, NZ. A nurse, she met him in Cairns, where he and a mate had reached on a trip around Australia before running out of money
"I knocked on the door of the Cairns Post and was fortunate to immediately pick up a fulltime sub-editing job. Another fun newsroom with lots of capable people. I pretty quickly met Marion during my stint in Far North Queensland and, instead of resuming travelling again, stayed put for a couple of years. Mick eventually headed back south and I then shared a house with three other journos. We had a great time: worked hard and played hard. Well, they did. I've always been a well-behaved lad."
(That is hard for me to believe, having seen him in action after footie games and long sport-reporting shifts. Murray continues without blinking, but with the semblance of a knowing smile, recalling some pranks played on others such as a famous fishing expedition to Pindari Dam when Manly, NSW and Australian star footballer Noel Cleal was the host of the Coolatai pub. I also recall the uproar Murray and I caused after we unhitched one of the locals' boats from his ute, and watched him drive home to his wife and try to explain where his boat was! Yep, they still laugh about it at Coolatai.)
"I ended up doing some reporting shifts and broke a national yarn about some illegal immigrants from Poland arriving in the Torres Strait after travelling across from PNG," he said.
"I was fortunate that the day I scored the exclusive coincided with the visit to Cairns of one of the senior editors from the Telegraph. He offered me a job in Sydney and I thought I'd go for a look. I spent seven or eight great years in Holt Street, and continued to learn a lot about journalism, newspapers and life."
He also moonlighted as a sub-editor at Fishing News - "We had to save for a house somehow" - then accepted the role of editor, staying on at the Tele for two or three nights a week as a casual sub-editor.
"After that I went to the Newcastle Herald and was there when the paper was converted from broadsheet to compact. That was a good experience, too."
Unlike Cameron, he moved across the ditch for his family. They were visiting his ill mother-in-law, saw a house advertised and made "a spur-of-the-moment decision" to make an offer on it.
"It was one of the great decisions of our lives ... Marion had a year spending lots of time with her mum before she died. It was a special year and the next 14 were terrific, too."
Murray had 15 years with Allied Press in Dunedin, publisher of the Otago Daily Times and a stable of community newspapers, and owner of a regional TV station. He started as a reporter, then was offered the managing editor (communities) role.
"That was an excellent, challenging position, surrounded by fantastic people, and I found it extremely rewarding. Then the editor of the ODT retired and they picked me to replace him. The ODT is a very fine paper - independently owned, highly regarded, successful and with a proud history. Again, we had a talented team, had a lot of fun and did some good work. It was an honour to look after the editor's chair for seven years."
Murray is a keen fisherman and one of the selling points for their new home in Dunedin was the fact it had a "river running through the backyard".
"Brown trout, perch, sometimes whitebait. Fresh flounder just downstream. Lots of waterskiing. Three super sons, heaps of carefree cousins and in-laws, and superb friends ... we were very lucky."
However, like Cameron, he was offered a position in Auckland he couldn't turn down: the role of editor at the New Zealand Herald, about three-and-a-half years ago.
"I'm happy to say I've never regretted the move ... It's a fantastic place to work."
The nation's biggest paper, the NZ Herald, is bucking readership trends and more people than ever are consuming it: almost 1.7 million per week, Murray said, with a print readership now 453,000 per day, a 9 per cent rise on 12 months ago.
He said it was "a lot of fun, most days".
"And obviously a responsibility that I and we don't take lightly ... We work very hard on [our audience's] behalf. Over a month, the company's total audience is 3.3 million New Zealanders. When you think the country's total population is only 4.5 million, we are doing OK - not to say we can't always do better."
Murray's other title is NZME head of content (news), which means "I have a role not just in print or online with the Herald, but across everything we do with news, including radio. But at the end of the day it's pretty simple: I just help tell stories, mate."
Promoting the game
While Murray is hell-bent on increasing readership, Cameron is dedicated to the Warriors winning an NRL premiership and improving their brand.
The Warriors have hired former NRL coach Brian Smith to run its football department and help provide pathways for talented kids; and employed astute recruitment officer Peter O'Sullivan.
Working with professionals such as coach Steve Kearney and captain Roger Tuivasa-Sheck is also a bonus for Cameron.
"We're the second most followed sporting brand in New Zealand. We can't compete with the All Blacks, but we are streaking ahead of the Super 15 clubs and other sport codes."
He also strives to get it right away from work, with 16-month-old Stella-Rose, his daughter with partner Emma Smith.
The Warriors have had a mixed run this season. A win this week will keep Murray's hopes up and make Cameron's working life a little less stressful. "Go the mighty Vodafone Warriors," the former said. "This is our year."