ON BEING MAMA’S BOY

Q ATell us a bit more about your mum. Why were you so close to her?

It was a real close relationship, probably more than most sons and mothers would have. I left home at 15 to go to Townsville to finish my schooling and then went to Brisbane and Melbourne. Moving away at a young age kept me pretty connected to her, being a bit of a sook when I left. She had a bit of a battle with cancer I didn’t know about until after she passed away. She was working one day, in hospital, the next she passed away two or three weeks later. It was all really sudden, which brought quite a bit of shock to the family. But her passing away ultimately brought me back to north Queensland, got me back up to FNQ and into the Pride and ultimately here at the World Cup. It has actually connected me a lot more with the family as well. We lived in Tully pretty much on our own, then chasing that birth certificate to go through the eligibility, talking to all my cousins and now being in the Italian team, I’m just getting all those congratulation messages and phone calls from my cousins all telling me stories about my nonna and brothers and sisters and that, so it has been really good to connect with my heritage.

Q AHow involved was she in your rugby league career? What did she do behind the scenes?

She knew nothing about rugby league but she was my biggest fan and she was always at the gate or the canteen. We owned the taxis for several years, at the post office she’d deliver the mail around town, so she was always in the public eye doing stuff between Tully and Herbert River. She definitely put in a lot of work.