By Dan Walsh
“One of the worst first days I’ve ever had”.
Star Roosters recruit Dominic Young endured a torturous initiation to the NRL glamour club last December – but at least he didn’t end up back in hospital, as was the case when a sinus infection spread to his brain following the end-of-year Tests in 2023.
Fellow big-name signing Spencer Leniu did wind up in the emergency department after his first day in red, white and blue went badly awry.
Leniu and Young will be key figures again for the Roosters on Saturday night when they host Manly in a sudden-death semi-final at Allianz Stadium.
Nine months ago, the marquee recruits had their first taste of life at the club by sleeping out on the stadium’s turf as part of a pre-Christmas boot camp for Trent Robinson’s squad.
Leniu, who had flown to Las Vegas with NRL chief executive Andrew Abdo as part of a promotional touring party for the 2024 season-opener, had his return to Australia delayed, so ended up jumping straight off a flight from the US and into meeting his new teammates at his new home ground.
Spencer Leniu’s time at the Roosters has been on the up since being hospitalised on his first day at the club.Credit: Getty Images
The NSW Origin enforcer came unstuck the next day when he tried to push his jet-lagged body through a series of gruelling, physical army-based drills.
Young, too, was left worse for wear by the camp given his fitness was still lagging after weeks spent in a Leeds hospital due to an infection that required surgery to remove an abscess on the lining of his brain.
The towering winger made a full recovery and is the Roosters’ equal-leading try-scorer this season (he and Daniel Tupou’s 19 tries rank them third in the NRL), but he concedes he probably didn’t need to throw himself straight into a pre-season army camp after losing six kilos in hospital.
“Poor old Spencer, we were in the same boat, just struggling and wondering how we were going to make it,” Young says.
Dom Young has been in fine try-scoring form.Credit: Getty Images
“It was so tough, and coming off when I was pretty sick, it took my body quite a while to get back to my normal self and my normal levels.
“Jumping straight into an army camp, that’s rough at the best of times. That environment, I was definitely struggling and probably over the first few games as well if I’m honest.
“I managed to get through it all. But I’d be lying if I didn’t say I was fighting a few demons throughout it. Just that voice in your head telling you to stop.
“But I got through it and I was pretty happy with myself being able to knock it over. I wasn’t even thinking about making a first impression on the team or anything like that on the camp. I was just thinking ‘get through it’.”
Leniu has earned himself a two-year extension and a NSW Blues debut thanks to a strong first season at the club, even if he was rueing the initial impression he felt he left.
“I ended up in hospital, just because I think my body was so dehydrated from the travel,” Leniu told the Roosters Radio podcast recently.
“It was a bit of a shock to the body and a pretty funny introduction to all the boys seeing me in hospital.”
Leniu came off the bench against his old Panthers side with the score at 22-0 by the time he got on the field, but will be a key pillar of the Roosters front-row battle against a couple of former teammates on Saturday.
Manly’s Nathan Brown and Matt Lodge were both at Moore Park last season, with Lodge leaving midway through the year in unhappy circumstances.
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