This week for Forever Green, we catch up with one of the earliest Raiders, Jon Hardy, who represented the club in its inaugural season in 1982 through to 1985.
Jon Hardy
Canberra Raider #5
Appearances 54
What do you do for work now?
I work as a nurse in mental health. I started in 2015. There's a part of me that wanted to go to University, to get a tertiary education and what prompted me do that was a series of physical, psychological and financial difficulties that I encountered at one time.
Also, my long-term relationship broke up so I wanted to move from where I was and the obvious thing for me was to come back to Canberra, I've got two daughters that live here and a brother and sister.
I came back here and applied for University and got an undergraduate degree in nursing and a post graduate in mental health nursing.
What's your favourite memory as a Raider?
To be really honest, I can remember when I was 18, specifically communicating with someone that I don't enjoy playing football anymore. To be honest there was a part of me that wasn't comfortable playing the game from that point on.
I guess the four wins in the first year were pretty special, I think we went against the popular thoughts of the time that didn't give us a chance of winning any games.
What did it mean to you, to where the Raiders jersey?
It was quite special, very significant. On reflection, it meant a lot to me at the time. I don't think I focused on that at the time but in retrospect, it was a pretty special occasion.
I don't know that I associated a great deal with coming from Canberra and representing Canberra it was a just a chance to play in the NRL.
Who was your favourite teammate?
I got along well. I had a stronger friendship with some of the people and some of the other players. Carl Frommel, Steve O'Callaghan were two Rowan Brennan I've remained good friends with him for quite some time and still am. They'd probably be the three main players that I associated more with.
Do you keep in touch with any of your former teammates?
I see Carl Frommel, Peter McGrath and Rowan Brennan fairly regularly. They're probably the only three I stay in regular contact with.
What was your funniest moment as a Raider?
I probably did have quite a few funny moments but I'm struggling to think of one. That kind of culture breeds a humour that's very much about taking the piss so there were always people who are doing that in the team.
I don't know that I would pick one particular incident but men in that culture tend to make light of everything so there are constantly funny moments at training, before the game, after the game, especially after the game I guess.
