GET RICH QUICK
Roy Asotasi reckons he never needed a South Sydney contract to make his fortune.
"Nah, I could've just taken a dollar from every person who told me the Rabbitohs were shit," he says in the Players' Poll 1986-2007 special edition.
"I'd be a millionaire now."
If there's a joke to be made about the long-suffering Bunnies, Asotasi has heard it.
Every criticism, every negative rumour, every disparaging comment – this former Bulldogs wrecking ball has listened to the lot.
In fact, Asotasi was still a month away from putting pen to paper with Souths when the 2006 RLW Players' Poll was released... proving even his peers were against the decision.
When asked the question "Which club would you least like to join?" a staggering 50 per cent of players listed the battling mob from Redfern. To put that number in perspective, nearest rivals, the Warriors received just 10 votes.
"Oh, yeah, there were so many people doubting the move," Asotasi recalls with a shrug. "But no-one else had seen what I'd seen. No-one else saw the product that was presented to me.
"I sat down with Russell Crowe and Peter Holmes a Court while they showed me the three-year plan they have for this club. I guess it was a bit like buying something off a blueprint... the vision those two blokes had for the club, that's what got me."
READ THE FULL STORY IN RLW’S PLAYERS' POLL SPECIAL 1986-2007
- ON SALE NOW
AND IN THIS WEEK'S EDITION OF RLW
BRAD THORN REVEALS HOW HE TURNED HIS LIFE AROUND
As he prepares for his 199th game as a Bronco, Brad Thorn has revealed the secret training location that transformed a boy into a man mountain.
The Bunyaville State Forest is a wilderness area where you could get lost for days but for Thorn it will always be the place where he found himself.
"I've run in that forest since I was 16 and I still run in it just about every week," Thorn tells RLW. "The reason that I started running in it was because of my dad. I was a kid with potential but no work ethic and no drive.
"Dad was sick of driving me around to games and seeing me not put in. So he said that he wasn't driving me anymore."
Young Thorn was sent to the Bunyaville Forest to sort himself out. Some may have seen it as punishment but Thorn credits it with turning his life around.
The Kiwi-born giant refers to that undulating landscape as "sacred ground" because it was his initiation into what it takes to be a professional footballer.
"I went over there and I ran and ran. For the first time in my life I got committed to something," the dual international says.
READ THE FULL STORY IN RLW THIS WEEK
ALSO IN RLW THIS WEEK
Danny Buderus vows to make Newcastle 'the best club in the world' again in 2008
Jamie Lyon – meet the man behind the mask
PLUS... Ben Rogers, Michael Witt and Wests Tigers team poster
