Five first year Melbourne Storm players attended the two-day NRL rookie camp last week.
Billy Walters, Tino Fa’asuamaleaui, Kayleb Milne, Cooper Johns and Louis Geraghty were part of the 140 youngsters who attended the program on Friday and Saturday at the University of Wollongong.
The group heard from several people who have experience in a wide variety of scenarios, including former Organised Crime Investigations chief Tony Parsons and former Seattle Seahawks NFL defensive tackle Jesse Williams.
Hugh Van Cuylenburg who runs the Resilience Project that was first implemented at Melbourne Storm, spoke about the importance of gratitude and empathy.
The two-day camp provided some valuable lessons for the young players, many of whom are entering an elite environment for the first time.
“Essentially the information we provide is to help them understand that there is process and consequence to actions,” Holden Cup wellbeing and education programs manager Tony McFadyen said.
“For us it about minimising risk because we know there is a lot of crucial decision making at a critical time in their lives. They are going to be confronted with it so we want to give them the tools and information to help them make the right choices.”
