3 minute read
Only 80 minutes separates towering Cronulla prop Tom Hazelton from playing in a grand final, but he nearly traded his NRL dream for a career in landscaping.
Standing at six-foot-six and weighing 116kg, Cronulla prop Tom Hazelton seems tailor-made for the NRL.
Running it hard from deep with black electrical tape wrapped around his depilated pate, the 25-year-old is a throwback to rugby league legends past, which may explain why he has quickly attained cult hero status at Shark Park.
But after injury and pandemic lockdowns stymied his burgeoning professional career he very nearly ended up putting his considerable heft to work tackling wheelbarrows and bags of soil instead.
The young Goulburn prospect had just made the move to Sydney with the Sharks' Jersey Flegg side and was pounding on the door of the senior team when COVID-19 brought the game to a standstill.
"The first year I played one game because of COVID and the next year I actually broke my hand in round two after we had a bye in round one, so that set me out for about 12 weeks," he told AAP.
"The game I was due back we had a bye, and then the comp got shut down straight after that, so sort of didn't have any footy for those two years.
"It was a pretty low time because I gave up so much leaving (Goulburn) and not to be seeing any rewards was a bit frustrating.
"During COVID, it would've been easy just to throw the towel in and head home but I got to a point where I had a good chat to a few people around me and decided that this is what I wanted to do.
"And off the back of that to play in the NRL, but now in the finals series and with an opportunity to play in a grand final is unreal."
It would have been easy for Hazelton to pack his bags and head home.
Instead he found a job as a landscaper and started shovelling.
"I actually really enjoyed it," he said.
"Obviously like everything, it has it's good and bad days. But that kind of line of work makes me appreciate the life I live now as well."
Now in his second full NRL season and his first preliminary final, the Shire feels like home, even if he's never embraced the local pastime of surfing.
"I tried it once and did it in budgies and got chafe pretty much all over the front side of my body, so that was enough for me to draw a line in the sand," he said.
"I love the area, I love the club and everyone involved with it.
"The option to go home is always there, right. But at the moment I'm very happy here.
"Hopefully, all things being equal I'll continue playing footy for a long time yet and this is somewhere I could definitely see myself settling down after that."