Surprisingly a great interview, insightful of that time at the club and funny too. He actually seems like a very decent young man that just needed the right people/person in his life at that very early stage before his issues became toxic and out of control.
Boy how mismanaged was he by our coaches and trainers at the time? From his first offseason training with our NRL squad and then the ongoing training, his body weight and injuries management. Wow, I really get the feeling that we were a major contributor to his inability to fully develop as a player.
I wouldn't be surprised that we mismanaged his drinking issues early on before it became a major problem and could have been better handled too.
I really hope we have better people at the club now who know how to handle our players coming through and not destroy them with a one program fits all approach. He really is a cautionary tale of what not to do to a young up and coming kid that needs to grow into his body as a man and eventually be capable of handling such a torturous training load and regiment. It sounds like a complete balls up from our clubs side of things.
P.S. I hope that his nephew and Peni Terepo's son ends up playing for the Eels, He sounds like a beast in the making.