What a caper this is already, getting paid to write about sport - and then, as a bonus, you get to meet blokes like Arthur Beetson.

You become used to dealing with big names in this job, but there are still those you get a real buzz about talking to, even after you've known them for decades.

Beetson was one of those, for me. It didn't matter what the subject matter was, I felt it was an honour to discuss it with a real giant of the game.

The reasons why he seemed so much larger than life stretched back to the second half of the 1960s, when I was growing up in a family that had its fair share of Balmain fans.

There was no avoiding the deeds of Big Artie in our house, and if I wanted to go over the newspaper stories again I could read them in my older brother's scrapbooks.

Then there were Beetson's golden days under Jack Gibson's coaching at Eastern Suburbs. He was a dominant player in a dominant team. Beetson was as tough as any forward, but it was his skill with the ball in his hands that set him apart.

He was the perfect ball-playing forward, a beautiful player in a brutal game - the type we don't see any more in an era that is about forwards gaining metres and getting up to play the ball quickly rather than getting it away in a tackle.

That was Beetson the footballer. Beetson the bloke was similarly awe-inspiring to a young journo, because of his reputation as having been one of the game's greatest players, his sheer size, his deep voice and his enormous standing in the game.

Here was this bloke I had grown up watching, and now I could interview him after a game in which he had coached. It seemed a little unreal. Beetson would let you know if he didn't like the question, but that would be it. There were never any grudges.

Beetson had strong opinions on the game and he voiced them. He didn't care if people agreed with them or not, and he wasn't going to water them down for anyone else's sake.

We saw a lot less of him around Sydney in recent years, after his coaching career and subsequent period as recruitment officer for the Roosters ended. But you could always get him on the phone if you knew it was a subject he would want to talk about.

The relationship between the media and sports stars has changed, and it won't be changing back, but fortunately Beetson was from the old school and you could talk to him about everything before working out with him what was on the record and what was just him blowing off some steam.

It's horrible to think that a bloke like Arthur is gone, because when it comes to rugby league he is what it's all about.