He was still a teenager and only a few years older than the rugby league-mad kid sitting on the roof of the dressing sheds dodging security. The Tigers were playing Widnes in a preseason game and all eyes were on the skinny kid out on the left edge. He was playing centre that day but it was really just a number on his back.

He popped up everywhere on the paddock, chip kicks, no-look passes, dodging defenders with ease and producing that step – that crazy freak of rugby league nature, literally leaving defenders grasping at thin air. 

These days we’ve seen virtually every young star produce some variation of it, from the Roger Tuivasa-Sheck to Shaun Johnson, but back then, we’d never seen anything like it. To the hundreds of kids lining the fence, and a few bigger ones on the roof, he was an instant hero. Most of them left brand new Tigers fans. 

Kids all over backyards everywhere were tripping themselves up practicing the ‘Benji step’ you couldn’t watch and game from under 6s to under 16s without seeing some variation of it. Kids, you see, look at the game with different eyes. They don’t grow up dreaming of completing their sets, getting to their kick, getting to their points on the field or running an “unders” line between c and d defender. They want to play like Benji.  

It’s why when Marshall returned to the Dragons from an ill-fated rugby union switch in 2014 he was instant favourite among the young fans. For us older, wiser more cynical it’s a view we lose with passing time. We saw the low percentage plays, errors on the stats sheet, a struggle to change his game as the natural flair faded.

I’m sure if he had his time again he might go back and take that $300,000 the club offered him at the start of the season. It would have saved a lot of angst for both himself and the club which coach Paul McGregor has admitted in recent weeks has been divided by contract talks this season.

Now his time at the Dragons is at an end and there haven’t been a whole lot of nibbles elsewhere. It’s a sad end if it’s the last we’ll see of him on the paddock. There’s no doubt if he’s forced into retirement he’ll pop up in various pastel colours on our TV screens and the honest and humble way he’s conducted himself this year in the face of constant speculation over his future has shown he’s truly a class act.

Paul McGregor’s decision to guarantee him a swansong performance has divided opinion but it’s refreshing to see that sentiment is not entirely dead in the game. He deserves a final lap.

Marshall’s a 250-gamer, despite five shoulder operations before the age of 22, a golden boot-winner and former Kiwi Test captain. In a game becoming more homogenized, more robotic, more formulaic with each passing season, genuine entertainers are a dying breed. In that class, Marshall is undeniably an all-time great. Looking back through time it takes genuinely special players to actually change the game.

In New Zealand where rugby union is king, Marshall can be considered the most influential player of all time. 

Whatever your opinion of Benji Marshall it’s undeniable that in the game of rugby league there was a time before Benji and a time after Benji. It’s a legacy only a special few can claim.