A WELCOME WAKE-UP CALL
THE mum of Melbourne forward Darryn Schonig almost missed her son’s longawaited NRL debut because she went to bed before kick-off.
Kerry Schonig and her partner Blake Oliver were caught off guard last weekend to find their son playing off the bench against Canberra in Melbourne’s 20-14 win after he wasn’t even expected to be playing.
Schonig was named as 18th man for the clash at GIO Stadium before being called in to replace teammate Tom Eisenhuth, who injured his hamstring during the warm up.
The sudden selection meant the 24-yearold did not have enough time to call his parents, so he yelled out to player welfare manager Brian Phelan in the crowd to alert them. Luckily he did because his mum had already gone to bed.
“She said she was just going to watch the warm up because she knew I would be there warming up and then she was going to head to bed,” Schonig said.
“As she was laying down to go to sleep, BP called her up and said Darren’s debuting.
“It took her by surprise. Because it happened so fast, my parents couldn’t be there to watch. It was just all of a sudden so Mum and Dad didn’t get to see it (live), they had to watch it on telly.
“She was stoked nonetheless.
“I heard there were a fair few tears going on and it was pretty emotional.”
Despite the shock call-up, the Cooktown product said he preferred to have been told he was making his debut just minutes before the match.
“If I found out earlier in the week I would have just thought about it a lot more but because it was there and then I was more pumped then I was nervous,” he said.
And the Queenslander is hoping to be named again this weekend with Eisenhuth set to have scans on his injured hamstring.