Guns, gouging, lewd videos and lies — NRL’s remarkable redemption stories

The 2020 NRL season has thrown up plenty of curveballs on and off the field — and it’s also produced some of rugby league’s most remarkable redemption stories.

Rugby league is full of great redemption stories.

Rugby league is full of great redemption stories.

Less than six months ago Nathan Cleary’s reputation was rubbish.

He’d broken the NRL’s coronavirus rules in the infamous Anzac Day TikTok singalong and, to make it worse, lied about it to the integrity unit.

Nathan Cleary has turned his season around in spectacular fashion.

He was heavily fined and banned for two weeks.

Even Freddy Fittler came out and said his Blues State of Origin position was in doubt.

“When you do things like that you put things in jeopardy,” Fittler said.

“When you pick a team you consider everything.

“We’ve always spoken about on and off the field and the role we play as a State of Origin team.”

Fast forward exactly 127 days. It’s almost a distant memory.

On form Cleary will be the first chosen in Origin.

He’s back in the sports pages rather than the crime section and we’re raving about his football.

Tyrone May has become an integral part of Penrith’s premiership push.. Picture: Robb Cox/NRL Photos

He could become Dally M champion this year, despite missing two games and having six points deducted for the two-game suspension.

His Penrith team mate and close friend Tyrone May is an even better example.

In January he received a three-year good behaviour bond and 300 hours of community service work for his part in the sex tape scandal that engulfed the Panthers last year and left his promising career hanging by a thread.

A magistrate labelled his conduct not only “morally reprehensible” but “criminal.”

The Panthers stood by him and he’s now an integral part of their premiership campaign.

You go back earlier this year to Josh Addo Carr and Latrell Mitchell.

Similar story. Taree. Latrell’s new farm.

Breaking coronavirus rules while the state was in lockdown plus gun charges.

Josh Addo-Carr has put his Taree incident behind him.

Again they’ve re-emerged and we’re writing about their football rather than misdemeanours.

There are others, too.

Big David Fifita was involved in an ugly off-season brawl in Bali.

He’s now almost the highest paid player in the game.

Back in 2018 Jack Wighton at the Canberra Raiders was kicked out of the game for 10 weeks for a street assault outside a Canberra nightclub.

He worked hard to repair his reputation and is now among the top half-dozen players in the game.

It just goes to show…

The story of Hudson Young is another great example of standing by and even supporting footballers who will always make mistakes.

How All Blacks helped put firebrand on right track

A technique mastered by the All Blacks is helping Hudson Young deal with the on-field pressures.

The Canberra forward missed the club’s grand final charge after being rubbed out for eight games for an eye gouging incident in the final round, 12 months after serving five games for a previous incident.

Young has been working with Canberra assistant coaches Brett White and Andrew McFadden on ensuring he stays in the “blue” zone rather than drifting into a redhead state of mind.

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Hudson Young has put a tough two seasons behind him to play a mature role.

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The blue head is the ideal state of mind a player can be in during high pressured situations. It has been heavily used by the All Blacks during their rugby domination in the past decade.

“Last year was a discipline thing,” Young said.

“I’ve realised there are 400 cameras in a game. I’ve been tweaking a few things in the mental side. Getting away from footy away and just relaxing at home.

“I’m a massive footy head. I’ve always been one to know every player in the NRL coming through school and everything was about getting footy cards. It was a dream come true to play footy.

“I’m making sure I’m in the blue head space and not getting too angry. I’ve started to master that now.

“It’s about not getting into the redhead space outside of footy, too, and trying to stay relaxed.

“What you do away from the field impacts your game.

Hudson Young has re-evaluated his game after serving two lengthy bans.

“I do breathing exercises the night before the game and just before the game to help relax my nerves. Knowing my role and how I can be the best player I can be on the day is probably the biggest change.”

Raiders coach Ricky Stuart said Young’s time away had given him a chance to re-evaluate his game.

“The amount of time that Hudson spent out, has made him realise he needs to change his mentality,” Stuart said.

“We have a sports psychologist that is doing regular work with Hudson and the maturity in Hudson is the fact he knows he needs to change.

“The reason we want to help Hudson is because he is a good bloke.”

The COVID-shutdown meant Young’s suspension was drawn out. He eventually returned in round six and has played in Canberra’s past 10 games.

“They were my mistakes and I had to own them,” Young said.

Young is determined not to miss out on a finals run this season.

“If I made an excuse I’m not going to fix anything.

“I’m loving it. Obviously it was a challenging year last year and the start of this year. Doing the pre-season with no real (idea) when you’re going to play again and halfway through corona hits.

“It was very challenging but the negative into a positive is that I had some more time to get bigger and stronger and work on things in my game.

“To hear the words finals footy excites me after last year. We’re driving for a top four spot so we can get two cracks at it and go one better than last year.”

The Raiders host the Bulldogs on Sunday afternoon.

Originally published as Guns, gouging, lewd videos and lies — NRL’s remarkable redemption stories