John Sutton’s 300th game: How his mum feared Souths hero would waste his talent
JOHN Sutton will create history this weekend when he becomes the first Rabbitoh to play 300 games, but it’s a milestone his mother Elena feared he’d never achieve.
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FORGET becoming the first Rabbitoh to play 300 games, Elena Sutton once feared her son John would waste away his rugby league talents — and she copped a broken toe for her worries.
The year was 2005 and John Sutton was wasting his time and talent hanging with his mates — the notorious Bra Boys — at the Maroubra Bay Hotel in southern Sydney.
As a result, he was regularly hung over, sleeping in and turning up late to training. Mrs Sutton knew something had to change or the Rabbitohs would rip up her son’s newly inked contract.
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“So I went down to the pub and clipped John across the ears,” Elena recalls.
“Only problem, he heard I was coming and went and hid in the toilet.
“The Bra Boys knew when I was there, they’d go really quiet. They’d all say, ‘Oh John, your mum is here’ and everyone runs the other way.
“But John wasn’t hiding from me. I went in there and kicked the toilet door and broke my toe.
“But I still managed to put him in the car and take him home.”
At this point, Sutton was walking a precarious path. Signed by Souths in 2004 as a 18-year-old, he was socialising on the drink and that led to shortcuts on the training paddock.
There was a genuine fear from people around him that he was wasting his promising career.
“John was naughty,” Elena says frankly.
“He started young and there was a culture at Souths that wasn’t that good. They were always drinking, so I had to be strong in helping him get to where he wanted to go.
“John thought playing rugby league and making money was OK, but he never had rules. He only had rules when he came home and lived with me.”
THE TURNING POINT
Elena’s constant rebukes to John weren’t being heard, so she knew she had to take matters into her own hands.
“I went and sat on the back fence at Redfern Oval and watched him train,” she recalls, smiling.
A red-faced Sutton was filthy with his mum’s presence in front of his teammates — but his old girl was determined for her message to sink in.
“John didn’t like it because the boys used to wave at me and I used to wave back at them,” she says. “It embarrassed him and he used to say, ‘Go home mum, go home’.
“But I stayed firm and said, ‘No I won’t until you stop drinking and start going to training on time’.
“That’s when I’ll stop sitting on the bench.”
Elena also issued John with a stern ultimatum — “play football or go and work on a building site with your father, John senior”.
Thankfully for the Rabbitohs faithful, it only took one day as a builder for Sutton to decide his future.
“He’d take his surfboard and surf half the day and then come home and have lunch thinking he had done a hard day,” says Elena, who has worked in childcare for 25 years.
“But someone in the family had to be hard on him. It was hard at times and not all parents would do that, but I knew he was wasting his talent.
“Any kid that wants to make it to the top, you’ve got to be surrounded by people that love you.
“But you’ve also got to discipline them so they get themselves together.”
TOUGH LOVE
For all Elena’s tough love, she has been equally supportive of her son.
This was particularly on display during South Sydney’s difficult years when the Pride of the League were paupers.
The Rabbitohs regularly finished at the rear of the ladder and they battled to attract big crowds. “But my husband and I attended every week and sat in the dressing room with a smile,” Elena says.
“To John’s credit, he never wanted to go to another club. There were times when we wish he’d left because the money would have been good and a big help for us.
“But in the end, we just wanted him to get somewhere in his life and help himself.”
Elena’s unwavering backing received the ultimate reward in 2014 when her son captained the Rabbitohs to the club’s 21st premiership.
The sight of John lifting the trophy to snap Souths’ 43-year title drought was proof her tough love had paid off.
FROM LAD TO LEADER
Sutton wouldn’t be celebrating her son’s 300th match milestone on Saturday if it wasn’t for the foresight of Souths staff over the summer.
Last December, the veteran Bunnies backrower was pushing himself to the limit completing a series of running drills during pre-season training.
Sutton could hardly breathe, but he kept running Then bang, his back started cramping. Sutton refused to stop running until Souths trainers intervened.
According to Rabbitohs assistant coach Willie Peters, who played alongside Sutton in his rookie season in 2004, it was a moment that typified the backrower’s transformation from lad to leader.
Peters recalls John’s rookie years, when largely due to immaturity, he was more focused on his next beer than beating his personal best at training.
“But now he is the ultimate professional,” Peters says. “Since coming back to the club this year, I’ve never seen him drop out of a drill.
“He just keeps going and going until we have to pull him out. Even then he wants to go back and keep running.
“That professionalism is the biggest difference I probably didn’t see in his younger days.
“I think that comes with maturity and realising how hard it is to play first grade and back up.
“A lot of guys will tell you John is now the backbone of what we do at Souths and he has been for many years.
“But initially he wasn’t a leader as such, because he was more of a lad.
“That said, you could always tell that he was going to be a seasoned first-grader — now 300 games is very special.”
On Saturday, Sutton will play his 300th game for South Sydney — a remarkable feat that will place him ahead of legendary Rabbitohs such as Clive Churchill, Bob McCarthy and John Sattler.
‘BETTER MAN’
And there is no one prouder of his success story than his mother, Elena.
“John has come a long way,” she says.
“He is a wonderful son, husband to Stacey and father, and he has changed so much.
“I think (former coach) Michael Maguire had a lot to do with it because he gave him responsibility.
“Growing up John was very timid and shy, but Madge gave him the responsibility to be captain.
“Now he has got Anthony Seibold, who is encouraging him to be a better man.”
Elena has bought front-row seats for Sutton’s milestone match against the Wests Tigers at ANZ Stadium on Saturday, and she’ll also pack tissues for the emotional occasion.
“Oh, I cry all the time when I talk about John,” she said.
“For me, coming from a little island near Fiji called Rotuma, it’s really huge being an island girl and having a son that has achieved the greatest milestone in South Sydney history.
“I never thought he’d reach this record because of the hard times, and we had to be very disciplined with him.
“But look at him now — he has a family, a home and he is successful.
“My husband and I couldn’t afford his life now and that is why we worked so hard pushing him to go the right way.”