Scott Storms down title path after Sydney switch
LIKE many 17- year- olds in the bright lights of Sydney, Curtis Scott had inadvertently slipped into the wrong crowd.
He never found trouble with the law but his parents Diana and Craig knew their son had to escape his disruptive peer group.
It would save his burgeoning career.
Too many talented schoolboy stars have had their dreams ruined by befriending the wrong blokes.
Curtis was a rugby league prodigy in Cronulla Shire yet Dianna, Craig and his manager Sam Ayoub knew their boy had to get out of Sydney.
“At that time, the Shire didn’t have a good reputation,” Craig said.
“Any young bloke could get into trouble in the Shire at that time. There was a lot of crap going on.”
Ayoub added: “Curtis was hanging around a motley crew. There were social distractions among the boys he was hanging around.”
The Australian Schoolboys star centre had 11 NRL clubs chasing his signature and he narrowed it down to five – Cronulla, Melbourne, North Queensland, Canterbury and Brisbane.
But two caught his eye. His eventual club Storm and their opponents in Sunday’s grand final at ANZ Stadium, the Cowboys.
Ayoub and his dad accompanied Scott to Townsville, where Johnathan Thurston, Matt Scott and coach Paul Green dropped by to say hello.
His mum Dianna joined them for the Melbourne visit a week later, when Billy Slater rolled out the welcome mat, spending 30 minutes in an AAMI Park corporate box selling him on the Storm.
Scott, still only 19, signed with Melbourne until the end of next season, but Storm officials want to extend his stay.
“I was a Cronulla boy, I played all my junior footy there and it was tough moving away ,’’ Scott said.
“I was ready for a change .. to get out of home ... and start a new chapter in my life.”