Having worked in and around professional sport for 25 years, one aspect I’ve always found intriguing is how little time elite athletes spend talking to and picking the brain of those who have gone before them.

The past legends of whatever sport it is they play – you know, the ones with the answers to all the exam questions….

Perhaps, it’s the need to appear strong and independent. Single-minded, even invincible. Any form of consultation or outside direction – that might be construed as a sign of weakness …. mightn’t it?

Who knows what goes on inside their heads. Certainly not some of their coaches.

And then there’s Liam Wright, the 23-year-old skipper of the Queensland Reds.

In the short time since he was anointed leader of the next generation of Queensland Rugby, Wright has sounded out, chatted to, bounced ideas around with a wide and wise range of Wallaby greats, all as willing as the next to share their knowledge and experience.

As above, we’re talking about being gifted a lot of the answers to those searching examinations, which athletes know all too well, are routinely sat before large audiences, eager to do the marking of papers themselves.

World Cup and Bledisloe Cup winning skipper John Eales spoke with Wright about of the importance of listening, taking it all in, but ultimately making your own judgements.

James Horwill highlighted the courage to be yourself, to get to know your young charges, to encourage and empower them in any way possible.

Ben Mowen, a fellow Easts Tiger out of the Bottomley Park den, counselled Wright about the importance of rest management, chilling out, freshening up, switching off totally whenever you can.

In more formal settings, Wright has also spent time with other sage veterans, the likes of Andrew Slack and Paul McLean. What they’d know about line-outs, scrums and rolling mauls you could scratch into the back of a Telstra sim card, but captaincy, leadership, composure? Get yourself a 240-leaf spirax notebook. And two pens, just in case the first runs dry.

None of this natural inquisitiveness should surprise. And whatever you, don’t mistake it for insecurity, or self-doubt, or even wishy-washy thinking.

Wright is whip smart, an OP 1 student who has already smashed his way through an accounting degree at QUT in record time.

Beyond that, he’s always been a student of the game. As a small kid growing up in Durban, South Africa, he used to get up with his Dad, Glynn, at 5 o’clock on Sunday morning and watch, start to finish, every Super Rugby match they’d recorded overnight.

The Sharks were his favourite, Stefan Terblanche, agile and lightning quick; Willem Alberts, what a beast, and Jannie du Plessis – how could somebody who plays rugby like that be a doctor? What’s he doing? Scouting for patients?

And then in 2004, the Wrights moved to Australia, mother Lee and father Glynn, an accountant (and a hell of a rugby player in his day, according to Glynn!) packing up their young family and settling in Sydney. Liam was just seven, his sole sibling, sister Kelly, five, but nobody was in any doubt, it was a great call.

At 14, Liam was sent off to boarding school at Churchie, where he was quickly identified as a future leader. His grade 10 English teacher, Garry Nucifora, remembers making a mental note. Wow. Watch this kid go. He didn’t know where, he just knew (no pun intended) he was made of the ”right” stuff – physically, mentally, intellectually, and socially.

Wright was a key member of the “uber” Churchie 1st XV team that dominated GPS rugby in 2014-15 and courtesy of Kalyn Ponga, featured widely on You Tube. Angus Scott Young, another Op 1 student, Brodie Croft, Mack Mason, Jaydn Su’A, Izaia Perese, prop Richie Asiata, now a Reds Squad member – it was a heck of a team.

However, as Wright walked out the school gates in Oakland Parade for the final time, a career as a professional rugby player still seemed like a pipe dream, a 50-1 shot.

He’d go to Uni, do a degree, but at the same time, place a small wager on the long shot. He’d work hard. He’d see what happened.

The rest as they say, is history. Wright emerged from the schoolboy system, graduated as a member of the World Cup-winning Australian under 20s, and through that and other performances, earn himself a contract with the Reds in 2018.

Wallaby prop James Slipper, now with the Brumbies, recalls encountering Wright for the first time in 2016, as a teammate in the Queensland Country NRC squad. Wow. Watch this kid go.

“It was kind of weird, because Liam wasn’t a real standout out in any particular area, but the total package was very impressive,” the Wallaby tighthead reflected.

His talents were further recognised in 2019 when he made his Test debut against the All Blacks – an off the bench cameo in Auckland. Wallaby No 928 now has five Test caps to his name, with the promise of plenty more to come.

Four years into his professional rugby career, with 45 caps for his state, the Reds skipper remains curiously anonymous, at least to those outside the Rugby bubble.

His flatmates, “Webby”, “Senry”, and “Collis” (what could possibly go wrong?) take great delight in telling anybody prepared to listen about the time they were doing the grocery shopping at Coles on a Sunday night, just 24 hours after Wright had skippered the Reds to a memorable victory at Suncorp.

The bloke in the queue behind them, apparently a little star struck, made a beeline for Liam. Or so they thought. Seconds later, he brushed straight past the Reds skipper and bailed up the 20-something year-old bloke behind the cash register,

“Excuse me, you weren’t in Big Brother in 2009, by any chance, were you?”

The four of them fell about laughing.

“Maaaaate… how bad are you going?” Webby delighted in pointing. “Second fiddle to a bloke who hasn’t been on television for 12 years – if at all!”

Webby was right. Fan boy was mistaken – the checkout-chap hadn’t, in fact, bunked down in the Big Bro house in 2009.

“Yeah – it’s hard for anybody in our household to get ahead of themselves,” Wright laughs. “The boys keep it pretty real.”

2021 of course to date has been a total write-off for hard working backrower, with a serious ankle injury, incurred in a trial match in early February side-lining him for the first 10 weeks of the season.

But after committing himself patiently and methodically to his rehab-program, he is finally expected to return to the field this week, starting on the bench in the Reds’ top-of the table clash with the Brumbies at Suncorp on Saturday night.

He’s full of praise for the job so many others have done, holding the fort and leading by example in his absence.

“Rabbit (James O’Connor), Lukhan (Salakaia-Loto), Angus Scott-Young, Bryce Hegarty, they’ve been unbelievably good, both on and off the field, leading by example, setting the standards. And obviously, the results speak for themselves,” he says.

“Other than playing waterboy, I really didn’t know what role I should be playing while I was sidelined. I wanted to contribute, but I didn’t want to get in the way. Hopefully I found the right balance.”

Wright is symbolic of the new breed being fostered by coach Brad Thorn – principled, hard-working and very respectable of the Queensland jersey, and all those who wore it in eras gone by.

There’s a sign on the wall of the team dressing shed at Suncorp – meticulously penned by the Reds’ resident artist, Angus Scott-Young.

“Earned not given” is all it says, leaving the rest to the imagination of the individual player.

Based on the Reds record so far this season, the buy-in has been good. Very good.

“We want to make our own mark,“ Wright says. “Be known for specific themes. We’re still a very young group, but we’re improving all the time. We’re now winning close games that in seasons gone by, we would have found a way to lose. And that’s what’s most encouraging.

“As long as we’re making progress, we’ll continue to build a following, and of course be doing justice to the Reds’ proud heritage.”