Bryce Cartwright opens up on injuries, NRL future and his stance on vaccinations
He is 25 but he has the knees of a 50-year-old. Behind the brickbats for his on-field form and his family’s stance on vaccinations, few see Bryce Cartwright’s courage just to remain in the NRL.
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Bryce Cartwright sometimes worries about how much longer he can soldier on, fighting the good fight with the pain barrier.
The Titans forward knows he has his critics.
He jokes he is convenient “click bait”. If he’s not getting bagged about his defensive efforts on the field, he is getting hammered off it about his refusal to follow the NRL’s COVID-19 guidelines on flu shots and his family’s stance on anti-vaccination.
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But behind the brickbats, few see Cartwright’s courage just to remain in the NRL.
He is 25 but he has the knees of a 50-year-old. He is bone-on-bone in both knees, the shock absorption of his cartilage long scraped away by surgeons. At 19, he broke his ankle so badly in his debut NRL season in 2014 a doctor told him his NRL career was over.
Six years on, Cartwright, his gait pigeon-toed, has defied medical wisdom.
On Friday night, he played his 112th top-grade game, helping the Titans to a gutsy 16-12 defeat of the Warriors, but there are days where he ponders his mortality in such a brutal sport.
“I do worry about how much longer I can keep going,” he said.
“I had a meniscus tear when I was 15 and the surgeon scraped out all the cartilage. Then two years ago, I did the meniscus in my other knee. Since then, it’s been bone-on-bone.
“The critics don’t see what you go through. Two weeks ago, I had to get my knees drained. I had 100ml of fluid taken out. My knees swell up and I have to get it drained all the time. That’s the price some players pay in this game.
“We get paid good money, but it’s not an easy ride.
“It’s hard mentally on me at times. But I always believe in never giving up. I will battle as long as I can until I retire.”
Two years after breaking his ankle, Cartwright was so dominant for his former club, Penrith, he was touted as a NSW Origin superstar. He was swatting away defenders, chip-kicking and ball-playing with such confidence he resembled a forward version of former Eels wizard Jarryd Hayne.
That 2016 season gives Cartwright hope his ankle won’t stop him recapturing his match-winning mojo for the Titans.
“Initially, the doc didn’t want to tell me the truth because he didn’t want to put me off, but when I came back to playing, he said my ankle was like something out of a car crash,” Cartwright said.
“My injury was so bad it was shown in a study over in the United States in colleges and universities.
“The doc didn’t think I would run properly again. I have worked my ass off to get back to this level. I lost a shitload of speed and strength. For seven months, I didn’t take a day off with rehab, I worked every day to fix my ankle.
“All the training and strength work we do at the Titans is amazing, I wouldn’t be on the field without the professional help I get from our trainers.
“What keeps me going is the feeling I haven’t reached my best. I do get disappointed at my inconsistency and I want to get back to playing the football I know I can. I want to repay the Titans for giving me a chance after I left Penrith.”
Cartwright was embroiled in a different health saga in May when he refused to follow the NRL’s edict for flu shots for all players under the code’s strict COVID plan to restart the competition.
Temporarily banned from training, Cartwright was ultimately cleared to return after being granted a medical exemption. He was slammed for jeopardising the entire NRL competition.
“I’m used to being in the headlines, I seem to be click bait for whatever reason,” he said with a laugh, speaking for the first time about the issue.
“It was just a personal decision. I have my own ways of looking after my body and I didn’t feel having a flu shot was relevant to what needed to happen.
“I didn’t feel I should be forced to do it. In the past, I’ve had a bad reaction to the flu shot. I won’t go into exactly what it did to me, but I got a medical certificate to explain the reaction I had and I am happy the NRL accepted it and let me play.
“We have to fill in an application every day. If we have a runny nose or a headache, you have to go and get a coronavirus test. The NRL players are well protected so if you have the slightest problem, the clubs are across it. I feel fine and everyone is well protected.”
Cartwright’s reluctance to have the flu shot seemingly goes hand-in-glove with his family’s stance on injections.
His partner Shanelle has spoken out on social media about their decision not to vaccinate their two young children, sparking community outrage at a time when a measles outbreak in Samoa killed 83 people, mostly babies.
At the height of Cartwright‘s anti-injection stance, Shanelle was ambushed by paparazzi while grocery shopping with their kids. Placid by nature, Cartwright gets emotional over that incident.
“It was disgusting what they did to Shanelle,” he says. “It was harassment for someone with a camera to come right up to her in a car park at a shopping centre with my children.
“It was pretty low. It’s quite sad, it’s effectively stalking. I don’t see why a personal decision by our family should lead to us being stalked by a photographer and makes us public property. It’s a joke.”
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Asked to articulate his and Shanelle‘s stance on vaccination, Cartwright sets the record straight.
“I understand vaccination is a big issue in the world and it will create huge conversations,” he said. “I reckon it’s a 50-50 thing for me. I don’t get emotional about it. It’s just the way me and Shanelle want to live.
“I’m not against people who choose to vaccinate, but it’s not for me or Shanelle. It’s our decision. Our kids aren’t vaccinated. They are healthy, we look after them and they are healthy and happy kids so we’re comfortable with our decision.
“I can’t speak for my wife. Look, she is very passionate and vocal on it but I let her do her own thing. She has her opinions and that’s fine with me. People make a big deal out of it all, but I feel we all have a right to decide what goes in our bodies and we’ve made our choices as a family.
“Shanelle and I have never once come out and said we are anti-vaccinations. We are pro-choice and pro-freedom. We believe we should have a say in what goes in our bodies.
“If people want to vaccinate, that’s their choice, I have nothing against them and I don’t tell them what choices to make.
“We have friends and family who vaccinate and we don’t debate that. We all have a choice. I feel like it’s all been blown out of proportion.”
In football, Cartwright also has a choice. He is off-contract next year, but wants to sign a new deal with the Titans.
“I love the place,” he said. “Sydney was a rat race, but I feel really settled on the Gold Coast.
“I want to make the people of the Gold Coast proud of the Titans and I don’t want to let my teammates down either. I want to help the Titans get back into the finals. I would like to finish my career with the club.”