NRL 2020: Brisbane Broncos want suspended star Tevita Pangai Jr to get a job doing manual labour
Remember the days when players had jobs away from the game. Well, the Broncos, in a bid to get Tevita Pangai Jr to realise the privileged position he in, want him to become ‘Tevita the Tradie’ and get his hands dirty.
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Broncos bad boy Tevita Pangai Jr is headed for a job site with Brisbane powerbrokers pushing for the Tongan tearaway to pick up the tools during his NRL exile.
News Corp can reveal the Broncos want Pangai Jr to become “Tevita the Tradie” and get his hands dirty during his suspension for COVID protocol breaches in a bid to stay fit.
As part of his suspended sacking, Pangai Jr must work with a club-approved business for the remainder of the NRL season and report for pre-season training in good physical shape.
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And the Broncos’ board wants him to get outside and sweat under the sun, rather than sit in an air-conditioned office and stare at a computer all day.
Broncos director and club legend Darren Lockyer said it was important Pangai Jr realised the privileged position he was in with a $650,000-a-year contract.
“From where I stand, I want him to appreciate the position he is in right now,” Lockyer said.
“So going to work for 40 hours a week and earning X amount of dollars and putting in the labour that‘s involved, that’s a great way of putting things in perspective.
“If he is going to come back in November in reasonable shape, then hopefully it’s a job where it’s some manual labour and a workout at the same time.
“It’s yet to be decided what he will do. Between his representation and us, it’s about landing on a job we are both comfortable with and we know it will get the right outcome.”
Pangai, 24, will miss Brisbane’s final seven games of the season and has forfeited about $100,000 after being caught breaching the NRL’s biosecurity protocols multiple times.
The final straw was his appearance at the opening of a Brisbane barber shop with links to a bikie gang, prompting the Broncos to consider sacking him.
The Broncos opted to terminate Pangai’s contract, but have given him 12 months to prove why he deserves to remain at the club.
Lockyer played a key role in saving Pangai’s Broncos career and said the 81-game NRL forward was capable of bouncing back.
“I see a lot of upside in Tevita. I can see the good in him,” Lockyer said.
“I see a wonderful talent but he has a few things he needs to iron out of his game on the field and off the field. But I’m pretty confident that with the right mentoring, we can get him to where he needs to be.
“Tevita is still developing and still maturing, he has learned a valuable lesson now and this is his last chance really.
“There are some strict conditions that have been put on him between now and the end of next year.
“It’s up to him what he wants to make of it and it’s up to people around him at the club to do their part and achieve what we want to achieve with him.”
The Broncos have also banned Pangai from using social media, prompting him to close the Instagram account in which he followed numerous known bikies.
Originally published as NRL 2020: Brisbane Broncos want suspended star Tevita Pangai Jr to get a job doing manual labour