NRL Grand Final: Storm star Curtis Scott indebted to parents for encouraging his Melbourne move

CURTIS Scott was headed down a wrong path in Sydney before his parents sent him to Melbourne. Now he’s on track for an NRL premiership at age 19.

Storm teen sensation Curtis Scott celebrates the win over the Broncos.

LIKE many 17-year-olds in the bright lights of Sydney, Curtis Scott had inadvertently slipped into the wrong crowd.

SLATER SAVIOUR: Surgeon thought star would never play again

FULL SQUADS: NRL grand final teams

JOKE! Smith misses out on GF ref gig

He never found trouble with the law but his parents Diana and Craig knew their son had to escape his disruptive peer group. It would save his burgeoning career.

Too many talented schoolboy stars have had their dreams ruined by befriending the wrong blokes.

Storm teen sensation Curtis Scott celebrates the win over the Broncos.

Curtis was a rugby league prodigy in the Shire. He captained Cronulla’s 2015 SG Ball premiership-winning side and was named player of the tournament when representing NSW at the Australian Schoolboys Carnival.

Yet Dianna, Craig and his manager, Sam Ayoub, knew their boy had to get out of Sydney.

“At that time, the Shire didn’t have a good reputation,” Craig said.

“Any young bloke could get into trouble in the Shire at that time.

“There was a lot of crap going on.”

Ayoub added: “Curtis was hanging around a motley crew. There were social distractions among the boys he was hanging around.”

The Australian Schoolboys star centre had 11 NRL clubs chasing his signature and he narrowed it down to five — Cronulla, Melbourne, North Queensland, Canterbury and Brisbane.

Curtis Scott is revelling under the tutelage of Craig Bellamy.

But two caught his eye. His eventual club, the Storm, and their opponents in Sunday’s grand final at ANZ Stadium, the Cowboys.

Ayoub and his dad accompanied Scott to Townsville, where Johnathan Thurston, Matt Scott and coach Paul Green dropped by to say hello.

His mum Dianna joined them for the Melbourne visit a week later, when Billy Slater rolled out the welcome mat, spending 30 minutes in an AAMI Park corporate box selling him on the Storm.

There was coffee with Brisbane coach Wayne Bennett at the Pullman Hotel in Sydney’s Hyde Park before Scott took a short trip to Belmore, where he thought he was “going into a lecture’’ with coach Des Hasler.

Scott, still just 19, signed with Melbourne until the end of next season, but Storm officials already want to extend his stay.

“I was a Cronulla boy, I played all my junior footy there, and it was tough moving away from family and friends,’’ Scott said.

“I left for an opportunity. I had to make that sacrifice and move away, come to Melbourne, knuckle down and focus on what I wanted to do with my life.

Craig Scott has been impressed with the way his son has handled the move south.

“I was ready for a change. I was ready to get out of home and come down here and start a new chapter in my life.

“It’s worked out well for me.’’

His father, Craig, has been full of praise.

“He has grown up a lot,” Craig Scott said.

“He’s going great guns. We miss him. It would have been hard on him.”

Ayoub first raised the possibility of taking Curtis out of Sydney.

“I sat down with his parents and they too were a little concerned about the company he was keeping,” Ayoub said.

Curtis Scott as a Bundeena Bushranger.

Curtis Scott as a Melbourne Storm player.

“Not that he was a bad kid or had done anything wrong. I suggested we look to an out-of-Sydney club, one that had discipline and took him out of that environment, was best for his well-being and career.

“In the end it came down to the Cowboys and Storm. It was a toss of the coin.

“There was also no issue with Cronulla. They were keen to keep him.”

Scott has “Dianna” tattooed on his left arm, a tribute to his mother, who packed up and moved south to make the Melbourne stay a lot easier for her son.

“I love her heaps, she’s done a heap for me and sacrificed lots for me to play rugby league,’’ Scott said.

“She’ll be there in the stands on Sunday.”

Craig revealed how Curtis landed in Melbourne.

“We met all the North Queensland hierarchy in a back cafe, Paul Green was there,” Craig said.

“Curtis was introduced to the players, they seemed like a great bunch of blokes.

“Then we went and met with Melbourne. I supported him and told him whatever way he goes I will back him. He said: ‘Dad, I think I want to go to Melbourne’.

“It was a better pathway for him. He also wanted to get coached under Craig Bellamy and play with the three champions too (Cam Smith, Billy Slater and Cooper Cronk).

“It was a hard decision for him but I think he’s made the right one.”

Of the Hasler meeting, Scott said: “It was pretty technical.

“It was really professional the way they run things there, but I just felt there was more of a pathway for me at Melbourne.’’

That path could lead to a premiership on Sunday at about 10pm.