Rugby league legend Laurie Daley has been left taken aback by news of former Parramatta star Paul Taylor’s spiral into homelessness.
The Daily Telegraph on Wednesday revealed the Eels fullback lived on the streets at the lowest point in his life.
The 63-year-old played in five grand finals with the Eels as part of the club’s iconic sides from the 1980s — and played in the Eels last Grand Final victory in 1986.
Despite the close brotherhood he shared with those teammates, Taylor reportedly kept his tragic personal spiral secret from all of them.
The Daily Telegraph’s Dean Ritchie on Wednesday morning told Sky Sports Radio Taylor was living in public parks and begging for money on Brisbane CBD streets before he turned his life around.
Ritchie said Taylor survived on $1 hashbrowns from McDonalds and stolen tea bags.
Taylor says in the report: “It was s*** what happened and I never expected it. You sit in the park nearly all day. I probably wore the same clothes for a whole week.”
His spiral began when he lost his job in Sydney following his retirement from football in 1990 and then later moved to Brisbane to be closer to his son, Jamie.
He was able to turn his life around and now has his own landscaping business on the Gold Coast where he lives on Main Beach.
“It’s a lovely end to a very sad era in Paul Taylor’s life,” Ritchie said.
He earlier said: “Paul’s revealed today how his finances and private life spiralled. And he moved to Queensland to be closer to his son Jamie and his life unravelled and he became homeless.”
Daley responded on his breakfast radio show, saying: “It’s a sad story.
“You just feel helpless that you weren’t able to know what was happening in his life. And I’m sure a lot his former Parramatta teammates who played with him didn’t know what was happening. It seems like now he’s got himself up and about and he’s got himself going again.”
— For the full details on how Taylor turned his life around, you can read it in The Daily Telegraph here.
