Bronson Xerri opens up journey from NRL to a construction site and back to the Canterbury-Bankstown Bulldogs

Bronson Xerri went straight from school to the NRL, with “everything handed to me”. Then, after being given a four-year ban, he crashed down to earth. The Canterbury centre opens up to PAMELA WHALEY.

Bronson Xerri fronts the media in his Bulldogs jersey after his return from a drug ban. Picture: David Swift

Bronson Xerri spent four years out of the game but it’s taken five weeks to remind him where he belongs.

The 23-year-old Canterbury recruit is hell bent on making his NRL comeback next season after serving a four-year doping ban for steroids that changed his life.

In many ways, it changed him for the better.

Before he tested positive and cast out of the game in 2020, Xerri was one of the league’s brightest stars with Cronulla, a bullish young centre destined for representative honours.

Now, having been broken down to his lowest and built back up again, he’s clearer than ever about what he wants from life.

And he has a new perspective to appreciate it all.

“I know I’ve been out for four years. I’m pretty hard on myself where I’ve set goals and I really want to achieve them so hopefully I get that round 1 spot,” he says.

“I’m taking it day by day and training session by training session.

“My short term goal is to stay healthy, have a great pre-season and put my best foot forward to be picked for the team.

“Once I secure a spot in this team, I feel like the sky is the limit.

“I’ve been on the worst side of it but I know what I’m capable of, what I can do in this sport and I can’t wait to get the opportunity to show people.

“I’m not in a rush either. If it’s going to take time, that’s okay.”

Sprint coach Roger Fabri puts Bronson Xerri through his paces. Picture: John Grainger

The comeback

Xerri was handed his second chance in the game when Bulldogs boss Phil Gould reached out to meet him back in 2022, and the Bulldogs offered him a two-year NRL deal.

It was 12 months ago now, and the moment lifted him out of a dark depression.

But if he was going to achieve anything in rugby league he needed to get his body right.

To prepare for the contact of a gruelling pre-season he worked with UFC fighter Robert Whittaker in his jiu-jitsu gym out in Smeaton Grange, as well as regular speed sessions with renowned trainer and close friend Roger Fabri.

“The first two weeks of the pre-season was very hard for me, the body was pulling up pretty sore,” he says.

“I had three or four months of wrestling at Smeaton Grange jiu-jistu. I was training with Robert Whittaker and some of the other fighters, so I was doing good contact and wrestling for a solid five months, which prepared me.

“Being out of the game for four years, contact was the biggest challenge.

“The footy side, I knew that would come back to me naturally, I’ve been playing the game since I was four, but the contact and the fitness I wasn’t used to.

“Usually I would just go to the gym and go home, I had no purpose and no motivation in life after what happened.

“Now five weeks in I’ve adjusted pretty nicely, I’m ready to come back and show everyone what I can do.”

Bronson Xerri in action for the Sharks before his four-year doping ban. Picture. Phil Hillyard

New perspective

Xerri has been through hell and back in the past four years for a mistake that he accepts and recognises was his own.

He doesn’t shy away from it, nor does he make excuses.

But now that he’s paid his dues, he doesn’t owe anyone anything.

“Except myself, and the Bulldogs for believing in me,” he says.

“I didn’t want to come to a club where I thought people were judging me, I wanted to be in a happy environment and I feel like this is where I needed to be.”

He doesn’t recognise the person he was four years ago.

Back then everything came easily to him, and he took for granted the 22 NRL games he played for the Sharks.

“I’m a totally different person now,” he says.

“To be fair, I didn’t know what I had back then, I wasn’t grateful.

“I had everything handed to me, I went straight from school to the NRL.

“Once that’s gone, I had to work on a construction site for a few months and that’s reality, that’s when I found myself saying that when I’m back I’m going to be so grateful that I have this second opportunity.

“As hard as those four years were, it’s made me a stronger person.”

Originally published as Bronson Xerri opens up journey from NRL to a construction site and back to the Canterbury-Bankstown Bulldogs