Dolphins ahead Connelly Lemuelu is sort of a runaway prepare when he will get up a head of steam.
However it’s the 4.57am prepare he caught every day as a schoolboy that began him on the street to the NRL.
The 24-year-old has been a revelation for the Dolphins within the first 4 rounds whether or not as a prop or in his favored second-row place.
In 2016 Lemuelu, who faces St George Illawarra in Wollongong on Saturday evening, was a schoolboy star attending Gold Coast rugby league powerhouse Keebra Park Excessive Faculty.
His aunt, who he was dwelling with, would set the alarm for effectively earlier than daylight.
He can be pushed every day to Altandi prepare station in Brisbane’s south to catch the 4.57am prepare to the Gold Coast the place schoolmates – present Gold Coast Titans David Fifita and Moeaki Fotuaika, together with Warrington’s Thomas Mikaele – would be part of him for the journey.
“It was the very best time of my life. I cherished it,” Lemuelu mentioned.
“There have been a number of boys from Ipswich who would drive to catch that prepare. It was early within the morning however there have been fairly a number of of us and it made it enjoyable.
“Dedication and self-discipline are two elements that Keebra Park holds in very excessive account. I feel it has proven with the quantity of gamers they’ve produced who’ve had profitable NRL careers.
“There are one thing like seven of us enjoying NRL now from that 2016 highschool workforce.
“Now we have little chats on the sector about what it was wish to catch the 4.57am prepare from Altandi station right down to the Gold Coast each morning.”
Titans half Tanah Boyd, Roosters outdoors again Jaxson Paulo and Brisbane’s Payne Haas had been additionally in that Keebra Park First XIII squad that made the nationwide GIO Schoolboy Cup ultimate that 12 months.
Lemuelu was signed to the Wests Tigers initially earlier than making his NRL debut for North Queensland in 2020 and becoming a member of the Dolphins this 12 months to get extra constant NRL.
He’d watched the vast majority of his faculty teammates debut in entrance of him and play common NRL. Now it is his flip.
“(The Cowboys) have an excellent, younger workforce however to come back down right here and study off premier back-rowers like Felise (Kaufusi) and Kenny Bromwich bought me throughout the road to signal right here,” he mentioned.
“I’ve performed since spherical one and hopefully I can play the remainder of the 12 months out as effectively.
“I’m studying off two of the very best to play that place within the final ten-plus years. They’re into me about not attempting to be anybody else, simply myself and backing my capability.”
The Auckland-born ahead and his accomplice welcomed son Rome two months in the past, who bought to see his dad rating within the Dolphins’ inaugural match in opposition to the Roosters
“It was my son’s first sport and my mother and father got here throughout from New Zealand and it was their first time watching me stay enjoying NRL … a second I am going to cherish without end.”
