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skiing. His team-mates were irate, but in a pointer to the negotiating skills that would later emerge, he managed to quickly talk his way back onto the paddock.
    David Kearney was another resident at St John’s, having been schooled at St Joseph’s at Hunters Hill. Both he and Joe moved to St John’s in second year, studied law together, and developed an easy friendship. David would also later become Joe’s rugby captain, and vividly remembers the role Joe played in the 1985 Rawson Cup rugby match against St Paul’s College, the champions of the 1984 season. It’s a story that says so much about Joe – both his desire to be centre of attention and to be on the winning side. On this day, the bell had sounded, but St Paul’s College had a final shot at goal. If they won, they would be declared premiership winners again. If they missed, St John’s would take home the Rawson Cup for rugby.
    It was a cold, wet afternoon, but 1500 students had poured out of the college dorms to watch the match on university grounds. St Paul’s kicker moved in, striking the ball. It hit the post. Thinking the play through in your head, you’d want one of the quick backs to catch the ball and get it over the line. But this time, the ball dropped off the post, directly to Joe Hockey. ‘All he has to do is get it over the sideline somehow and we’re all shouting at him to kick it,’ Kearney says. Joe had other ideas and decided to run the ball. To David, the next ten seconds felt like an hour. Joe was a big burly prop, and it wasn’t usual back then for props to run with the ball. He tucked the ball under one arm and began charging towards the sideline. St John’s supporters were screaming at him to kick the ball across the line. ‘He finally did, via a wild pass, but it took a long time to do it,’ Kearney says. ‘It was almost like, I’ve finally got the ball in my hand and I’m going to make the most of it.’
    Joe’s manoeuvre helped St John’s win the Rugby Rawson Cup. ‘Joe’s always had a way – whether it’s through good luck or good management – of finding himself at the right spot at the right time,’ Kearney says. ‘I suspect it’s more through good management.’
    Neither of those qualities was present on the day he was decked by one of his coaches, future prime minister Tony Abbott. The story has been told hundreds of times with slightly different emphases, depending on the storyteller. But those like Kearney and others (not including either of the protagonists) tell it this way. Joe was a third-grade prop, with Abbott, usually captain-coach of second grade, filling in as his coach.
    ‘Tony was just packing down, as his second-grade prop was injured. Joe kept popping him, or lifting him up,’ one of the players says. ‘It was driving Tony nuts.’
    Tony got the ball and lay over it in the ruck. Joe aimed his shoulder and charged at Abbott’s kidneys. Abbott got up and smacked Joe. Joe remembers it hurting. Tony Abbott says: ‘My recollection is that his head made more of an impact on my fist than my fist did on his head!’
    It was no big deal at the time. No-one watching would have thought that one day Abbott would be the nation’s prime minister and that the target of his punch would be his treasurer. But the slap-down didn’t surprise any of Joe’s classmates. They knew how Joe could push buttons when he wanted to, and he liked to bait friends to the point where they retaliated. On that day, Joe’s response was to throw a punch back – and that didn’t surprise anyone either. When you prodded Joe Hockey the right way, he’d fight back twice as hard, and he played to win. On another occasion, on the same football field, Joe leant in and kissed one of his opponents. It was a tactic that worked.
    ‘He wanted to get a reaction from me,’ the player says. ‘He wanted me to swing a punch and get a penalty in front of the posts. That gives you an insight into his competitiveness.’
    Joe found the