WAUCHOPE Blues front-rower Kurt Doherty has no plans on making it to 200 first grade games for the club.
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He will run out this weekend for game number 100 against Taree City and admitted he would call it quits in two games time.
While it will still be a special occasion for the 29-year-old, he said family was now the focus, but wanted to finish the season off as best as he could.
“We recently had our second bub, so I’m not a chance of making it to 200,” he said.
“The little fella keeps me on the toes and I want to spend as much time with them and watching them grow up.
“This week or next week will probably pull me up.”
Doherty has played 10 seasons with the Blues between reserve grade and first grade and also played three seasons for the Runaway Bay senior football club in the Gold Coast.
There is no doubt the highlight of his career was appearing in three grand finals.
The Blues went back-to-back in 2012 and 2013 where they claimed the Clayton’s Cup for going through the premiership undefeated.
Only four teammates remain from that golden period for the club in Nick McCabe, Sam Watts, Mat Bird and Reuben Trick.
In 2013, Doherty was also named the Group 3 rugby league reserve grade player of the year.
Kurt started playing when he was 13 years old, linked up with the Blues when he was 18 and made his first grade debut in 2007.
But he admitted to being injury-prone in his junior years.
“I broke my ankle and then my shoulder and I probably only played 10 games in the two years I was in the under-18s,” he said.
The front-rower moved away for a few years to Queensland and the Gold Coast before returning to Wauchope in 2012.
He has played for the Blues ever since and is looking forward to this weekend’s clash which is the Blues’ closing the gap charity round.
“It’s what I have been hanging out for,” Doherty said.
He knows most of the team because like him, a lot of the players grew up in the town.
“We are going through a bit of a rebuilding stage at the moment, which is good. In 2012 and 2013 we won the premiership so it was a pretty good time in those couple of years.
“Every side goes through lulls but we are rebuilding pretty well,” he said.
I can’t wait. All my family and friends will be there.
- Kurt Doherty
Kurt says Taree are pretty high up in the pack and will be a challenge on Saturday.
“They’re pretty handy. We want to be on our game, or we will get our pants pulled down pretty handy,” he said.
“We have got so much young talent coming through, and they are all local boys.
“The under-18s are doing really well.”
