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Under the learning tree of Andrew Johns and Danny Buderus.

Does it get any better than that?

A halfback who played four seasons of first grade for the nib Newcastle Knights, Dureau climbed his way through the lower grades before getting his chance in the NRL.

Having made his debut in 2007, the playmaker was fortunate enough to have two of the greatest to ever play the game act as his mentor during his career.

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With 42 NRL games to his name before carving out a successful 92-game Super League career with Catalans Dragons, Dureau has shared some of his memories of the genius that is Johns and quality of Buderus.

"Joey in the initial stages when we were sort of coming out of the 20s age group in 05-06, Joey was sort of at the back end of his career," Dureau explained when asked if anyone had mentored him as he was coming into grade.


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"Joey had a pretty big influence on us, especially through the pre-season.

"We did some first-grade pre-season and Joey was really good with his footy IQ and understanding of the game was on another level which sometimes was hard because we didn't understand what he was talking about.

"Back end of my 20s and sort of stepped into first grade, Danny Buderus, he's from Taree as well so we were family friends for a long time.


"He took me under his wing. He was the one who really showed me what it took to be a first-grade player.

"He really made me go to the next level.

"I was really fortunate to play a year with him before he went overseas to Leeds."

While everyone knows the brilliance Johns played with, it is his worth ethic which really opened the eyes of Dureau and the other halves at the Club.

"He is an intimidating guy," Dureau said of the eighth Immortal.


"He was intense. He trained just about as hard as anyone I'd seen. At first, he was intimidating and then once you got to know him a little bit, you could have a joke.

"He knew sometimes when we didn't understand by the inquisitive look on our faces.

"He was really good at explaining to us and putting it simply.

"As we got a bit older and learnt a bit more we'd go to him with problems and Joey was pretty good at figuring out little solutions in our game."