Yow Yeh: I went through two years of hell, now I’m desperate to coach in the NRL
They were blessed with talent and were on a path that led to riches and fame. Then it all came crashing down. James Silver continues our series on NRL players whose careers ended all too soon. Today, he speaks to former rising star Jharal Yow Yeh.
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They were the lucky ones — blessed with talent, passionate and on a path that led to riches and fame. Then it all came crashing down and they had to rebuild lives that would never be the same. James Silver continues our series profiling NRL players whose careers ended all too soon.
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Jharal Yow Yeh sat in the kitchen of his family’s weatherboard house in Brisbane and tried to explain that, at just 24, his career was over.
He sighed. “I can’t play footy anymore.’’
Yow Yeh’s two years in hell were over.
The former international winger had avoided a foot amputation, beaten a painkiller addiction, and battled mental demons so severe he’d once refused to leave his hospital room.
He’d overcame it all to return to his “first love”, rugby league, to play in the Queensland Cup and two trials for the Brisbane Broncos.
Two years of “excruciating pain”, until finally in March 2014 Yow Yeh began to fear that if he kept on pushing he would eventually never be able to walk again.
He broke down in front of his grandparents, Lomas and Iris, and mum, Rhonda.
Iris walked out of the room, too devastated to hear more.
“It would have been tough on her,’’ Yow Yeh says.
“Her grandson is playing for Australia, playing for Queensland. I was planning on being the best winger that ever played here at the Brisbane Broncos.
“That’s what I wanted to do and no one was going to beat me. I knew in my head no one is ever going to be better than me.”
If you think that sounds like hyperbole, spend five minutes on YouTube and get back to us.
Yow Yeh debuted for Brisbane at 19, then played for Queensland and Australia as a 21-year-old in 2011, looking at home in backlines featuring the likes of Darren Lockyer, Billy Slater and Johnathan Thurston.
He started his fourth season feeling “unstoppable”.
Then came March 23, 2012, and a moment no one who was tuned in to Friday night footy will ever forget.
Playing against South Sydney in Perth, Yow Yeh flew high for a ball he had no right to grab.
He landed with a thud, suffering a compound fracture of his right ankle.
Brisbane’s Justin Hodges and South Sydney’s Greg Inglis frantically waved for medicos as Yow Yeh looked down in disbelief — the bone had speared through his skin, soaking his yellow sock with blood.
THE DEMONS BEGIN
Yow Yeh stayed in Perth for two days before flying back to Brisbane for the first of 10 operations and multiple skin grafts.
He now regrets the decision to fly so soon after the injury.
“Obviously being up high in a pressurised cabin, I got down and basically the skin all died on me in my ankle and I had a big hole in my leg,’’ Yow Yeh says.
“If they didn’t act fast I would have lost my foot. I was very, very lucky in that sense.
“And that’s probably where the demons started because I stayed in that hospital for just over two months.’’
Yow Yeh was isolated to reduce the risk of infection, leading to crippling inertia.
“I didn’t want to leave the room,’’ Yow Yeh says.
“I can understand people who go to prison, you get scared of the outside world; I was honestly very nervous.’’
He became addicted to painkillers that helped get him through the long days and longer nights.
“Once I got that it was sort of game over,’’ Yow Yeh says.
“Obviously I couldn’t feel anything and it just made me feel normal so I was taking it a fair bit. It got to a day when I had to go cold turkey. I was scared to take anything like Panadol.’’
A single goal drove him on: to play for the Broncos again.
He returned to training just eight months after the injury, but it took a brutal toll.
Rugby league was probably the first time I fell in love with anything and you don’t want to lose that.
“I was in pure pain every day I was running on that field and training paddock,’’ Yow Yeh says. “But I didn’t want to let my mates down. I didn’t want them to think that if something like that happened to them that you could give up that easy.
“There was a lot riding on me trying to get back.
“Mentally to get up and do that for all the people I love was very, very tough. I never showed it because I didn’t want to show pain, I didn’t like it.
“It wasn’t how I was brought up, it was move on, and I suppose that’s why we lose a lot of kids these days to suicide.
“I’ve come out and finally after those two years of playing footy I’ve told people how much I struggled and it was the best thing I ever did. It was physically and mentally the hardest two or three years of my life.’’
THE LAST STRAW
Training during the day was hard, but playing at night was agony.
He got to pull on a Broncos jersey again for the first time in 688 days in a trial against the Cowboys at the start of 2014, then travelled to Dunedin for the club’s final hitout before the start of the season.
His foot hurt so much on the night before the match that he had to warm up in joggers.
The former speedster who had scored tries on debut for his club, state and country started in the second-row, but was taken off after 15 minutes.
Assistant coach Kristian Woolf then told him to return.
“I’m not going back on at second row,’’ Yow Yeh told Woolf.
“I’m only going back on in the centres.”
Woolf was clear: coach Anthony Griffin wanted him up front.
“Well, you just radio up to Hook that I’m not playing,’’ he replied.
Two weeks later Yow Yeh suffered ligament damage in his other ankle while playing for Norths Devils.
“I went to the sheds and broke down and thought, I’m never going to be able to walk again if I hurt myself on the other side of my leg,’’ Yow Yeh says.
“I wouldn’t be able to play with my kids, I’d be turning up to the shopping centres with one of those blue handicap signs in front of my car and I thought, I’m not ready for that yet, I’m not going down like that.’’
Yow Yeh called his great mentor, Griffin, into a physio room to tell him it was over before he tried — and failed — to find the words to explain his decision to his teammates.
He will forever be grateful for Griffin’s support.
“He didn’t just put a line through me and say I was done,’’ Yow Yeh says.
“He gave me every possible opportunity to prove myself to not just him, but my fans, my family, my mates at the Broncos and that’s what I loved about him.
“There’s not many coaches who would do that these days.
“I went out the way I wanted to.”
A NEW DREAM
Seven years on from the day that changed his life forever, Yow Yeh still hurts.
Eventually, he’ll need an operation to insert a pole through the bottom of his heel that will be fused to the ankle.
“I’ll be walking around like a pirate then,’’ Yow Yeh jokes.
“I don’t mind if I get to walk around with a walking stick that’s stylish, it might help me with some of the suits I wear.
“But it is scary and I would wish it upon nobody. That day in Perth was just a freakish incident. It could have been worse, I could have lost my leg, my foot, but I’m very happy it’s still on and I’m still going strong.’’
Strong doesn’t seem like a powerful enough word for Yow Yeh’s willpower.
He could have walked away from rugby league, bitter at the hand he’d been dealt. The opposite turned out to be true.
“Rugby league was probably the first time I fell in love with anything and you don’t want to lose that, you want to keep it close to you,’’ Yow Yeh says.
Still just 29 years old, he’s worked in a range of roles at the Broncos, including his current position as a content producer.
And he harbours a new dream: to be part of a coaching staff and win a premiership.
But Yow Yeh is grappling with the idea of leaving the club that has given him so much since he first walked through the doors as a shy teenager.
“The fact is I can’t just separate myself from this place, I just love it too much,” Yow Yeh says.
“Here at the moment I’m not coaching, I’m not doing my trade so I’ll probably have to go somewhere else. I don’t want to, I’d hate to go anywhere else.
“Hopefully something happens in the future, because I guarantee you if they do give me an opportunity here at the club I’ll never let anyone down.
“I really want to build something here that we can look back on and go, I helped create that.”
Yow Yeh has discovered that life goes on without a No.5 on his back.
“Now I see my work colleagues as my teammates,” Yow Yeh says. “I was scared that I’d leave the game and it would be so different up in an office or working day to day but it’s really not, we’re all striving to be successful in different ways.
“We grow up playing footy and you think that’s the only thing you need in your life. But there’s much more to life than playing footy and rugby league in general.
“So just enjoy it. And for me, stay tuned because the story for Jharal Yow Yeh is not over. To be continued.’’
Originally published as Yow Yeh: I went through two years of hell, now I’m desperate to coach in the NRL
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