Revealed: Robbie Farah's cryptic chat with Paul Gallen ahead of Leichhardt Oval showdown
Will he, or won't he?
That was the question on everyone's lips as they sweated on the fitness of injured and retiring playmaker Robbie Farah in the hours leading up to the Wests Tigers' eighth place play-off against the Cronulla Sharks at Leichhardt Oval.
In the end it was something almost written from a movie when the 35-year-old kitted up and took to the field after teammate Corey Thompson unbelievably injured his Achilles during the warmup.
A day on, Sharks veteran Paul Gallen has revealed that no one at the ground, not even the players, could have foreseen the circumstances that lead to Farah's fairytale call-up, even after a cryptic chat the two players shared before the game.
Paul Gallen and Robbie Farah AAP
"Robbie came up to me and I was sitting there listening to my music in the dugout, just as the crowd was being let in," Gallen told Nine's 100% Footy.
"Robbie came and set next to me and goes 'Want to have a draw? Wouldn't it be really good to annoy the Queenslanders one more time'.
"And I thought, this isn't Robbie Farah, he's not playing. Because I know what Farah is like on gameday.
"I went straight up the tunnel and I said to Johnny Morris I said 'Mate, Farah is not playing'. He goes 'Yeah we're getting whispers he's not playing'.
Robbie Farah leads the Tigers out Getty
"Sure enough, we go out and warm up and next thing Robbie Farah's name comes over the speaker. We didn't know it was happening in the changerooms."
Farah was heroic in his second-half feature, inexplicably playing on a broken leg as he took the field late in the game to try and salvage something for his troops staring down the barrel of an eventual 25-8 defeat.
However, despite the emotion, rugby league guru Phil Gould seemed more preoccupied with another feature of Gallen's pre-match anecdote.
"Just wind back there," Gould said to Gallen.
"You were listening to music? What music do you listen to on gameday?"
Gallen replied: "You know who I was listening to at the time?
"Justin Bieber.
"I actually went to Justin Bieber's concert with the missus, it was actually pretty good."
