Fill-in role elevated Aitken to grand final folklore

By Michael Carayannis
Updated October 2 2014 - 12:23am, first published October 1 2014 - 8:00pm
 "It was a foreign position for me. I was pretty nervous": Russell Aitken. Photo: Andrew De La Rue
"It was a foreign position for me. I was pretty nervous": Russell Aitken. Photo: Andrew De La Rue
 "It was a foreign position for me. I was pretty nervous": Russell Aitken. Photo: Andrew De La Rue
"It was a foreign position for me. I was pretty nervous": Russell Aitken. Photo: Andrew De La Rue
 "It was a foreign position for me. I was pretty nervous": Russell Aitken. Photo: Andrew De La Rue
"It was a foreign position for me. I was pretty nervous": Russell Aitken. Photo: Andrew De La Rue

Russell Aitken was sitting around with his mates on Tuesday night half joking that his name would bob up this week. While Aitken may have had a short NRL career, he remains part of grand final folklore when he was plucked from relative obscurity to replace Cameron Smith in Melbourne's 2008 grand final loss to Manly.

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