Craig Garvey gets NRL chance for Bulldogs just weeks after doing community service
IN just weeks Craig Garvey has gone from washing dirty dishes and taking out garbage bins as part of his community service to starting for the Bulldogs.
Sport
Don't miss out on the headlines from Sport. Followed categories will be added to My News.
JUST weeks ago Craig Garvey was washing dirty dishes and taking out garbage bins as part of his community service.
On Thursday night he will step into Canterbury’s hot seat at hooker when they take on Penrith at Pepper Stadium.
Garvey, 22, has left his self-described “dark place” and will make his club debut for the Bulldogs in place of the injured Michael Lichaa.
Just before the pre-season, Garvey was completing eight-hour days of community service at a kiosk at Wylie’s Baths, Coogee. There he completed menial tasks like picking up leftover rubbish.
Garvey was sentenced to 150 hours of community service for assaulting a man at an Illawarra pub early last year.
He was stood down by his then club, St George Illawarra, and the message sank in. Garvey had to change, otherwise his career was dead.
His road to redemption began at that humble kiosk.
“I went (to community service) every day of the week. Eight hours a day,” Garvey told The Daily Telegraph.
“I was washing dishes. I would clean the pool, pick up the rubbish, change the garbage bins, help out in the kitchen when they needed me.
“It made me think: ‘I hate this, I don’t want to do this’. It made me appreciate what I have in footy. There were others doing community service, they didn’t have anything else to fall back on.
“I’m lucky. I’m doing the thing I love. It made me more humble and I will never take footy for granted again.”
The Bulldogs signed Garvey during the off-season.
He was ready for a new start and, with Lichaa out indefinitely with a serious knee injury, has been granted the perfect opportunity to impress.
Garvey is open and honest about the tough times he has already encountered in life. He has met and overcome them. Footy is now his priority.
“When I was having that drama, I went a bad way,’’ he said.
“I was just off the rails, I didn’t have a good lifestyle at home. I didn’t know where I was, I was up in the air with football. I wasn’t happy, I didn’t know what I was thinking.
“I went to a dark place. Lucky I had my family around. Without them there was no way I could have come back and eventually played first grade again.
“I was pretty depressed at the time. I was doing community service all the time. I also broke up my partner, who I had been with for four years.
“I didn’t know where I was going to go and I had to have a real good look at my life. I was roaming the streets when I was young, running amok with a couple of the boys. Around Maroubra, La Perouse.
“All last year (when stood down) I was thinking I had stuffed my career up. I knew exactly where I wanted to be. I took footy for granted when I was younger and then I nearly lost it all.
“All I wanted to do was play first grade. It’s the best thing ever. When you don’t have it, you realise you could be working in a job that you hate. Now I am here with my mates and playing the game I love. I’m stoked.
“I regret (the incident), it all happened so fast. If it didn’t happen then, something would have eventually happened. It made me change my life. In a way I am glad it happened when I was young. It has led me down a better path.”
Garvey had a difficult upbringing filled with painful memories, including an uncle who overdosed on heroin, a cousin who went to jail and another family member who was stabbed.
“It’s been pretty up and down. I have had some family stuff, it’s been tough at times,” he said.
“I ended up turning a good corner in my life.
“Some people I hung around with, even some family issues, I had to cut out. I started hanging around some positive people. I changed the way I live. It’s all worked for the best.”
Originally published as Craig Garvey gets NRL chance for Bulldogs just weeks after doing community service
Malthouse: Old blood ‘potting from a distance’ holding Blues back
Mick Malthouse has been involved with six AFL clubs across his tenure in the league, but said the stranglehold on Carlton from former players and rich powerbrokers was something ‘different’.
Key Bombers trio all face soft tissue setbacks
Essendon was bracing for a big boost after the bye with up to five players returning, but a key trio have suffered more soft-tissue injury setbacks. Jay Clark has the details.