Welcome to Princes Palace

Article Name: Prince's Journey Of Discovery
Magazine: Rugby League Week
Writer: Glenn Jackson
Pages: 1 Page

MT ISA is regarded as the gateway to Queensland. Some of the locals even call it the centre of the world. Les Prince, needless to say, isn't one of them. When you've clocked up as many kilometres as he had over the years, you'd feel the same.

In thruth, mt Isa is pretty much a long way from nowhere, a 900km trek to Townsville and a lazy 1900km from Brisbane. Les can't remember how many times he's made the trips to the cities. Son Scott, the reason for said trips, can't either.

"All I know is they get longer each time I do them," says Les.

It didn't just start and end with football either. You name the sport, and chances are Scott Prince has had a crack.

He captained Mt Isa's representatice touch football side, played grade cricke, and was a strong swimmer and runner. He tried everything, even tenpin bowling. Older brother Stephen was the same.

"Scott would watch a basketball game one day, and he'd end up making the team," Prince Snr says. "I got them into karate and they both came away with trophies in that. I told them I'd end up breaking their legs because they cost me too much."

Les thought the problem was solved when he left his job in the mines of Mt Isa and moved the family to Townsville, where Scott was playing with North Queensland. They were going to live in Scott's house.

The only problem was, Scott was packing his bags for Brisbane at the same time.
Still. Les isn't complaining. In fact, the seeds which took Scott to Brisbane were planted by Dad, long before Scott was joining the club. You have to travel back to 1988, when the Broncos entered the cmpetition. That's where you'll find the opening credits of the drama which finished with the gifted player's signing in July. That's when Les caught the bug.
"I think most Queenslanders followed the Broncos back then," he says.

Prince almost ended up at the Broncos much earlier. He was offered a scholarship at 15 after attending a Broncos camp.

Ironically, it was his family which ultimately landed him in Townsville. At that age, he wanted to be close to home - as close as 900km can get, anyway.

Why then, did the Cowboys let him slip through the net? That's a question only North Queensland officials can answer. But did they have a choice? Talking to Prince, you sense not.

Like it or not, the Broncos are the glamour club of Queensland. Prince is keen to establish himself, and possibly puch for State of Origin recognition.

Playing behind the premiership-winning pack, with Wayne bennett yelling the orders, was too tempting for him.

"At the start of the 2000 season, I wanted to be a bit like Andrew Ettingshausen, play my career out at the one club," Prince says, " I wanted to win a premiership, and be captain,be a legend there.

"The dream faded away as the year went on."

And way? Prince isn't so sure.

"I really appreciate what the club's done for me," Prince says, "They'vegiven me the oppurtunity to play in the top grade.

"But the felling just wasn't there."

The last straw, it seems, came when a local paper encouraged readers to fax the club and let fly about why they should keep the youngster. While Prince probably would have gone anyway, it certainly didn't change his mind. In fact, it made him more resolute.
"In the papers, they were trying to say that I owed the club," he says. "They said the club had invested $400 000 in me. I was a bit annoyed, but I tried not to listen to them."

It's all history now, anyway. Prince now has to set about trying to become a halfback in the NRL's best side, a position he's not accustomed to . He did play halfback in the juniors "a long time ago" but has had little experience outside that.

But you sense that the country kid won't struggle to adapt. As his father says, he can do anything he sets his mind to.

Switching to a new club, a new city and a new position is a hurdle , but no harder than others he has cleared before.