Uilisi Halaholo- What a Lad

And you mentioned around going to other people's families and seeing how kids are living and growing up.

Takes me back to your story and what that was like for you.

I know a lot of people would have heard your story, but there'll be plenty who haven't as well.

So cool to hear, hear that, how that went down again.

Yeah.

Like I said, it's, it's, it's eye opening to, to see those, those families and go to those other kids' houses and see how they're living.

And I think I connected, get connected to it, um, deeply because of the way I, I came through, um, before I, you know, became a professional player, you know, um, I was always good at footy, you know, I was always good at playing rugby from a young age and probably just relied on it a bit too much.

So then, you know, as you get older into those teen years, you start to make your own decisions and things and probably the tug of war you have between, you know, choosing footy and wanting to be out with your mates and the boys in the neighborhood and all the boys are probably swayed that way a bit.

And then having a My daughter in high school, I think it was my last year of school, having my daughter born that year, I probably just put rugby to the back seat a bit and decided to go that way and just make some money for my family, provide for my daughter, thinking that was the right thing to do.

But I guess in saying that, I was out of home a lot of the time.

So as my daughter got older, turned two, three, you know, I realized that she needed me around more and she was going to a lot more other male figures in our family rather than, you know, her dad.

Not in a, you know, she was just a bit more closer to them in a way.

And so, you know, that sort of made me switch a bit and want to change it up and, and, and stop doing what I was doing and

see if I can give rugby another go.

So, you know, I put the bottle down for a year and I was about 120 kgs.

Where? Far out.

Yeah.

There's a photo that out there somewhere, but I was still, um, I was 120 kgs playing prem rugby for Graham Carlton.

Still carving up, but you were, you were just

drunk.

I was, I was carving up, but not often enough.

I have a good run and then I'll walk around.

But, um, yeah, it was just, you know, I would have, you know, moments where maybe coaches could see he's got something about him, but the work rate wasn't there and, and things like that.

Um, but yeah, it was just, I put the bottle down and things like that and went from 120 to like, you know, 102, 103.

And this was all for your daughter because you felt like she was...