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<big>**Matthew Johns advising rugby league bad boy and Wests Tigers recruit Arana Taumata**</big>
By Josh Massoud From: The Daily Telegraph November 27, 2009 12:00AM
MATTY Johns hasn't been lost to rugby league. Not yet. Not while Arana Taumata repents.
Johns is out of the spotlight, the plug pulled on his coaching and media commitments. But a flicker of the larrikin who swallowed a coaching manual persists. And it will glow brighter when Taumata emerges from his own exile next season.
If you've heard of Arana Taumata, then he's the bad egg who's had as many clubs as NRL starts.
Taumata grabbed his latest lifeline from Wests Tigers last month after being tossed overboard at the Broncos, Roosters, Bulldogs and Storm. That makes him the first 20-year-old to own the dreaded journeyman tag. It's arrived this early because Taumata has been bad. So bad he recently completed community service at a Salvation Army op shop.
Equally, he's notoriously good. Damn good. If the Kiwi playmaker weren't a superstar-in-the-making, why have so many clubs been tempted into taming him?
Melbourne were confident this time last year. Coach Craig Bellamy and assistant Stephen Kearney kept him under a close watch. And with a banker in Johns, who worked one-on-one with Taumata as halves coach, the risk-reward ratio looked promising.
It took one night's play to bring their hard work undone. It was a familiar story. Wrong place, wrong time, wrong people. Some were Taumata's new teammates. He obeyed the unwritten code. It wasn't his fight, but he took one for the team nonetheless.
Recognising the circumstances weren't black and white, Melbourne responded with a brick and a bouquet. They sacked him, but also stood by him. He was deregistered by the NRL, but the club arranged professional counselling with a view to bringing Taumata back in 2010\. The Tigers eventually snuck under their guard, but the preservation of Taumata's relationship with Johns was perhaps his real saviour.
Little did either know how close they'd become. Johns' public humiliation in May also severed him from rugby league. Like Taumata, he was cut off from his life's true calling. The two castaways rode out their purgatory over the phone and at Johns' dinner table, which Taumata regularly visits for family meals.
"I spoke to Matty a lot," Taumata says.
"And he still kept in contact when he was going through a rough patch.
"Matty was probably more devastated than me - but in a different way. We talk about our situations a lot. For Matty … it was really hard on his family.
"It wasn't just Matty who helped, it was his family and my agent Sam (Ayoub). I'm not sure our talks helped - I hope they did."
We approached Johns to find out. He doesn't covet publicity these days. But for Taumata, he elects to speak up.
"AJ has had his issues in the past - as have a lot of us," Johns says.
**"Regardless of his talents as a footballer, he's got a lot of good in him as a person.**
"I love having him around to the house, as does (wife) Trish and the kids. My advice to him has always been: 'Your environment is stronger than your will'."
Translation: surround yourself with good people. People like the Johns family and Tigers skipper Robbie Farah. That's Taumata's mantra these days.
His woes began when clubs housed him with adult players as a 15-year-old. He wanted to impress them, which meant visits to the TAB and pub most afternoons.
" What Matty went through is a great lesson for me," Taumata says.
"He paid for something that happened seven years earlier. If you do the wrong thing, it can always come back and get you."
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This article reminds me of when I take my Blind mate to the footy after I have had a full day on the sauce ,watching the 3 grades.....The Blind leading the Blind
By Josh Massoud From: The Daily Telegraph November 27, 2009 12:00AM
MATTY Johns hasn't been lost to rugby league. Not yet. Not while Arana Taumata repents.
Johns is out of the spotlight, the plug pulled on his coaching and media commitments. But a flicker of the larrikin who swallowed a coaching manual persists. And it will glow brighter when Taumata emerges from his own exile next season.
If you've heard of Arana Taumata, then he's the bad egg who's had as many clubs as NRL starts.
Taumata grabbed his latest lifeline from Wests Tigers last month after being tossed overboard at the Broncos, Roosters, Bulldogs and Storm. That makes him the first 20-year-old to own the dreaded journeyman tag. It's arrived this early because Taumata has been bad. So bad he recently completed community service at a Salvation Army op shop.
Equally, he's notoriously good. Damn good. If the Kiwi playmaker weren't a superstar-in-the-making, why have so many clubs been tempted into taming him?
Melbourne were confident this time last year. Coach Craig Bellamy and assistant Stephen Kearney kept him under a close watch. And with a banker in Johns, who worked one-on-one with Taumata as halves coach, the risk-reward ratio looked promising.
It took one night's play to bring their hard work undone. It was a familiar story. Wrong place, wrong time, wrong people. Some were Taumata's new teammates. He obeyed the unwritten code. It wasn't his fight, but he took one for the team nonetheless.
Recognising the circumstances weren't black and white, Melbourne responded with a brick and a bouquet. They sacked him, but also stood by him. He was deregistered by the NRL, but the club arranged professional counselling with a view to bringing Taumata back in 2010\. The Tigers eventually snuck under their guard, but the preservation of Taumata's relationship with Johns was perhaps his real saviour.
Little did either know how close they'd become. Johns' public humiliation in May also severed him from rugby league. Like Taumata, he was cut off from his life's true calling. The two castaways rode out their purgatory over the phone and at Johns' dinner table, which Taumata regularly visits for family meals.
"I spoke to Matty a lot," Taumata says.
"And he still kept in contact when he was going through a rough patch.
"Matty was probably more devastated than me - but in a different way. We talk about our situations a lot. For Matty … it was really hard on his family.
"It wasn't just Matty who helped, it was his family and my agent Sam (Ayoub). I'm not sure our talks helped - I hope they did."
We approached Johns to find out. He doesn't covet publicity these days. But for Taumata, he elects to speak up.
"AJ has had his issues in the past - as have a lot of us," Johns says.
**"Regardless of his talents as a footballer, he's got a lot of good in him as a person.**
"I love having him around to the house, as does (wife) Trish and the kids. My advice to him has always been: 'Your environment is stronger than your will'."
Translation: surround yourself with good people. People like the Johns family and Tigers skipper Robbie Farah. That's Taumata's mantra these days.
His woes began when clubs housed him with adult players as a 15-year-old. He wanted to impress them, which meant visits to the TAB and pub most afternoons.
" What Matty went through is a great lesson for me," Taumata says.
"He paid for something that happened seven years earlier. If you do the wrong thing, it can always come back and get you."
__________________________________________________________________________________________________
This article reminds me of when I take my Blind mate to the footy after I have had a full day on the sauce ,watching the 3 grades.....The Blind leading the Blind
