Former Manly halfback Craig Field addressed Sea Eagles players on Tuesday and spoke about his time in jail for manslaughter and the need to “own your actions”.
Field was convicted for the one-punch death of Kelvin Kane at the Kingscliff Hotel in 2012.
After being released from prison at the start of last year, Field, now 50, revealed how he wanted to help young people by telling them his story.
“If I get a phone call from a club that wants some help in welfare or mentoring that is something I’d love to do,” Field told News Corp at the time.
Field played at South Sydney with new Sea Eagles chief executive Tony Mestrov, and spoke to the players at their Brookvale HQ. It was the first time he had spoken about his experience at an NRL club.
Each week a group of Manly development players with less than 15 games of NRL experience listen to stories from past players, but the senior Sea Eagles wanted to sit in and hear Field’s story.
Craig Field told Manly players about gambling and life in prison.Credit:Alfred Naupoto (Manly Media)
“He showed so much remorse and he owned his actions, and he wanted us to learn from it,” skipper Daly Cherry-Evans told the Herald. “He wants to help people learn before something like that happens.
“His key messages were, you need to own your actions, be accountable for who you are and what you do, and bad choices have bad consequences; be a good person and stay out of trouble.
“Some of the younger boys didn’t really know his story, but once he delved into it, it was easy to sit there and listen. He was really open about what had happened.
“Selfishly it was good to hear from him because we took a lot out of what Craig said.”
Craig Field addresses the Manly players on Tuesday.Credit:Alfred Naupoto (Manly Media)
Coach Anthony Seibold said, “you could hear a pin drop” when Field spoke, and any NRL club or school would benefit from hearing his tale.
“It was the first time he had shared his story [with a group] and it was almost a weight off his shoulders, just to be vulnerable,” Seibold said.
The Sea Eagles were crowned the inaugural pre-season challenge winners, with $10,000 of the $100,000 prizemoney to be donated to local charity Bear Cottage.
Cherry-Evans will be one of 10 Sea Eagles to shave his head in the hope of raising more funds, which is already sitting close to $35,000.
Manly launched their season at North Head on Wednesday, Josh Schuster confirming he injured his calf in the opening minutes of last Friday’s trial, but said he was aiming to be back by round three.
Cooper Johns, the son of popular media identity and former Newcastle and Cronulla playmaker Matthew Johns, is on a $1000-a-week train-and-trial deal, but will fill the final spot on the top-30 roster before Saturday week’s opener against Canterbury.
Schuster, who will be the regular No.6 after Kieran Foran’s departure, said of his untimely injury: “It pulled up tight in the first five minutes of the first half, [but] I didn’t want to say anything because I hadn’t played in a long time. It got tighter throughout the game.
“I told ‘Seibs’ [Seibold] once went into the sheds and I said, ‘it’s not good’. I had scans on Monday and it confirmed a tear.”
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