As Gallen takes you through his childhood, the amateur psychologist rushes to judgment.
Angry after his parents' divorce, there is the 14-year-old who gave up the game for a year and fuelled his teenage aggression through the throttle of a motorbike instead of the fury of a hit-up. The kid so uncontrollable that his mother kicked him out of home. ''I just couldn't handle that Mum and Dad broke up,'' he says. ''It was just a bad situation. I was a little bit angry, I suppose. She had to cope with the other kids [two brother and two sisters] who were all younger than me.''
Here is the 16-year-old who was rejected by the Wentworthville Magpies. Who worked his way into the first team at Marist Brothers, Parramatta. Who found he could cut it with Nathan Cayless and the school's other stars. Who was picked for Parramatta's SG Ball team then, impetuously, threw that chance away.
''Why not play with my mates at 'Wentie'?'' the teenage Gallen was thinking. So what if the Eels did not allow it? No one would know. Except Gallen scored a try, copped a late hit, joined an all-in brawl and was hauled before the judiciary. Parramatta found out, and he never played for the Eels again
