Charles Lomu

So yeah, growing up, I probably heard those words more when we were like being disciplined.

So maybe it's more like, yeah, right.

I think he thought that it would be the best chance for us to succeed.

to earn a good living and also help the family out, you know, to help the family out financially and just set us up on a good path.

So I'm not too sure at what point that became an idea to my father, but what I feel was when he took us down to the local football club, Elwood Saints, to start playing footy and started to see how much we...

enjoyed playing the game and then started to really gravitate to understanding how the game works and that.

And I guess we probably were effective at it.

And my father thought this is probably a worthwhile investment.

Did you enjoy it back then?

Yeah, I think I enjoyed it...

I think I really did enjoy it because I think playing at that time in my life, I think playing football in the team, in the club that I went to, it helped me to, I guess, learn how to just meet and start communicating with other people, you know, to get used to people outside my family circle.

Because we have a tight family growing up, we only really stuck to ourselves.

And so going to play football was my time where I got to hang around other people, I guess, or just be exposed to other people where we were doing something that we enjoyed, where there was a coach who became, you know, like invested in me as well that was outside of my family.

And I really enjoyed it.

I found it fun when I was a kid, yeah.

Yeah, I think it was.

I mean, I didn't really recognise it at the time because she'd actually been coaching us since we were really young, under sevens.

And just over the years, she just remained our coach.

Yeah, I honestly looked at her like a mother.

She was an Australian woman and, you know, I would spend a lot of time visiting and they would spend a lot of time