This isn’t a redemption story, Jack Wighton knows he stuffed up

He was mixing with the wrong crowd, and heading down the wrong path. DEAN RITCHIE tells the story of the NSW debutant who had two choices — leave town or end up in jail.

• Contract: Wighton’s self-imposed CBD ban

• Dangerous contact: Young Raider faces lengthy stint on sidelines

HE was the schoolboy footy star ushered out of his country town in the NSW central west because of fears he could end up in juvenile detention.

The same adolescent who drank on the streets late at night, got into fights and never much cared for the consequences.

And whose pattern of behaviour would come back to haunt him years later and almost cost him his rugby league career.

Now, at 26, that same kid will make his State of Origin debut from the NSW interchange bench in Wednesday night’s series opener against Queensland in Brisbane.

Jack Wighton’s journey to the NSW Blues was a troubled one. Picture: Tim Hunter.

But this isn’t a redemption story.

Jack Wighton knows he stuffed up. He’s not hiding nor pointing fingers.

“I won’t blame anyone else. I was as much to blame,” he said from Blues camp this week. “I blame myself.”

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This once-troubled kid was heading down a very different path. As a teenager, he fell into the wrong crowd growing up in Orange, a town of almost 40,000 people, but still small enough to earn a reputation - particularly a bad one.

What saved Wighton - and he needed saving - and got him off the streets was his love for rugby league.

Talk to those who knew him and the response is the same: If he didn’t get out of Orange, he wouldn’t have made the NRL. He was a better chance of landing in prison.

He would be out late at night, just out on the streets. Drinking, fighting, just being a nuisance. School was never high on his list of priorities.

And because Wighton was a big, strapping kid, he feared no one.

“It was the way we grew up,” Wighton said.

“It was the way we lived and went about things. I have had my days but it’s turned around now.”

That’s why, when Canberra officials inquired about him, they were told straight up - he needed to get out. He needed a new peer group. He needed a professional structure. He needed to stop doing things a prospective NRL player shouldn’t be doing.

Canberra Raiders player Jack Wighton leaving the ACT Magistrates Court in Canberra. Picture: Kym Smith

Enter former Wallaby and Balmain winger James Grant, who works with the Clontarf Foundation in Orange, educating young Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander men.

He could see all that which Wighton couldn’t.

Mick Aldous, a talent scout with Canberra at the time, had heard about Wighton’s ability and began making calls.

Grant told the truth – this product of Orange CYMS in the proud Group 10 competition had one hell of a future, but he could be trouble.

“I told him Jack was a great kid but if he gets in with the wrong crowd he was a naughty kid,” Grant said.

“Jack was a good footy player, had a mile of potential, trained hard and had all those attributes footy players have.

“Mick asked whether I would recommend him and I said ‘I would highly recommend him’. He was worth investing in.”

Jack Wighton received a lifeline when the Raiders took a chance and recruited him. Picture: AAP Image/Rohan Thomson

But that recommendation came with a subtle warning.

“Jack didn’t have footy issues, his footy was amazing. He had off-fields issues,” Grant said.

“He needed to get out of his off-field environment to become that rounded person because there’s a million-and-one good players out there.”

Once inside the Raiders’ set-up, Wighton settled and flourished on the football field.

“It’s an amazing success story. As bad as he once was, everyone loves him, wants him to do well and is immensely proud,” Grant said of the Orange community.

Not that it’s all been smooth.

Last year, Wighton almost threw away his NRL career when he was handed a two-month suspended jail sentence for an assault in Canberra’s CBD, where he punched and head butted random men.

Speaking with The Daily Telegraph, Wighton concedes rugby league gave him what he needed to turn his life around.

“I’m very grateful for my footy career – it has given me a lot of structure and routine,” he said.

“That’s the difference between falling to the wrong side and the good side.

“I have been around the traps. I’ve been on both sides of the fence.”

Latrell Mitchell (L) and Jack Wighton (R) wrestle during a New South Wales Blues State of Origin training session. Picture: Brook Mitchell/Getty Images

Now, at 26 and already into his eighth NRL season, Wighton’s football has been stellar. Raiders coach Ricky Stuart’s decision to move him from fullback to five-eighth has been a resounding success.

Tough, aggressive and uncompromising - all those traits which plagued his teenage years, have now been refined and make him perfectly suited to Origin.

“He obviously had his dramas but it’s great to see him part of this,” NSW coach Brad Fittler said of Wighton’s place in the Blues camp.

“He is a good head space now and is always learning.”

Blues teammate David Klemmer has watched Wighton’s journey with interest.

“I am so happy for Jack,” he said.

“In life, people always stuff up but he’s got his life back on track and he’s playing exceptional football.”