Panthers star Dallin Watene-Zelezniak forgives attacker
Dallin Watene-Zelezniak has forgiven the St Marys trainer that assaulted him at a junior rugby league game a few weeks ago.
The Standard
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DALLIN Watene-Zelezniak has forgiven the St Marys trainer that assaulted him at a junior rugby league game a few weeks ago.
Watene-Zelezniak was volunteering as a touch judge in a junior match involving his club, St Clair, and St Marys when one of their trainers attacked him for a decision he made.
The Penrith star is a devout Mormon and he said his faith helped him through the ordeal.
“Everyone has bad days and I’ve forgiven him,” he said.
“It’s harder to hate someone than it is to forgive them.”
Watene-Zelezniak won’t let it stop him from giving back to local footy, while the St Marys trainer was banned for life by the club.
“It will take a lot more than that for me to stop helping out the junior league,” he said.
“I haven’t forgotten where I’ve come from so I like to help out.”
Meanwhile, Dallin takes on older brother Malakai this Sunday when the Panthers meet West Tigers at Pepper Stadium.
Malakai told the Standard just weeks ago how he would use his size to intimidate his younger brother when they were growing up.
But the little brother has since gone on to play Test football and is an important part of the Penrith side’s charge to the finals.
Dallin can get revenge on Sunday.
“It’s going to be interesting because we haven’t played against each other since backyard footy,” he said.
“It’s going to be very weird to run out against him. He’s my older brother so he was the bully in the backyard.”
The match kicks off at 4pm.
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