In 1986, about the time the 21-year-old Les Kiss was announcing himself to the rugby league world by debuting for the North Sydney Bears, the Queensland Origin side and Australia in the space of five months, the Breakfast Creek Gang was carving out its own legend as “a disparate, yet harmonious, blend of wharfies, coppers, journos, lawyers, car dealers, bookies, small-time criminals and Labor party identities”.
Four decades on and Kiss, the incoming Wallabies coach, is a proud member of the garrulous rabble now trading as the Breakfast Creek Athletic Club. “A very inspiring, talented, connected, grounded group of people,” he tells the Guardian. “Once a week we meet for a run or a walk, coffee and a chat, maybe dinner and a few beers. We’ve probably all got more problems than we admit to … but for me it’s a wellbeing space after so long away.”
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