Time spent away from the game, appreciating other aspects of his life, helped Jayden Brailey negotiate another agonising year on the road to recovery.
The plucky hooker reflected on that experience after helping the Knights open their 2024 account with a hard-fought 14-12 victory over Melbourne at McDonald Jones Stadium on Sunday night.
Playing his first game since tearing his ACL against the Warriors on April 9 last year – his 27th birthday – Brailey came off the bench to play the last 27 minutes. He made 20 tackles and delivered sharp service from dummy-half as the Knights held off a late Storm surge.
“I was trying to keep the emotions at bay all week,” Brailey told media after the game.
“Obviously I’ve had a lot to reflect on in the last 12 months, a lot of the mental battles I’ve gone through, and it just makes it all worth it. This moment right now, these times are what got me through last year, and I’m just glad we got away with the win.
“I was nervous on the sideline. I was up and down, kept moving, but through the day I tried to have a different approach and tried to be relaxed through the day as much as I could.
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“I didn’t want to over-think things, I wanted to keep it simple, and I just wanted to be cool, calm and confident. That was my attitude going into tonight, but once I got on the bench, the heart-rate picked up and I was a lot more nervous.”
The luckless Brailey suffered the same injury to the same knee in the second game of the 2020 season – his first in Newcastle after transferring from the Sharks.
Then he only played eight games in Newcastle’s 2022 campaign after rupturing the Achilles tendon in his left leg at pre-season training earlier that year.
So after suffering a second ACL tear last year, he decided to distance himself from the team to focus on repairing himself physically and emotionally.
“I feel like I’ve developed myself away from the game really well, especially the last 12 months. I’ve really valued a lot of other things in my life, not just football, and it’s made me feel a lot more balanced through my life,” Brailey said.
“I worked hard on myself last year… My whole life’s been footy, footy, footy, footy, but to be able to switch off, I tried to get away from the game last year because it was eating me alive, to be honest.
“At the start, it was pretty tough to get through, but I started valuing other things in my life a bit more and trying to get my happiness through those avenues.
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“It was tough, it’s been a big work in progress, and it didn’t happen straight away. It really only clicked at the back end of last year so it’s good to be on the other side of it.”
Brailey and Knights coach Adam O’Brien discussed the option of him returning through NSW Cup but the coach settled on a plan of 30 to 40 minutes off the NRL bench behind Phoenix Crossland.
“He would have been extremely nervous and I know I was nervous – I was crook in the guts this morning – so I’m so proud of him,” O’Brien said.
“It’s been a really long slog for him.”
Knights captain Kalyn Ponga said Brailey’s positive attitude in the face of so much adversity had not gone unnoticed.
“He’s hugely inspirational for this team; for this club. He’s not someone who looks for personal accolades, and a lot of his actions, he does for everyone else,” Ponga said.
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“He’s extremely resilient; extremely disciplined. To go through what he’s been through over the last three, four years, then to always come in with good energy, smiling, and willing to get better, it says a lot about his character.
“During the week, we didn’t speak a lot about him, but he had the last word at captain’s run yesterday and I reckon that went a long way to our performance tonight – just that effort, and that willingness to turn up for each other, it’s what he brings every week.”
Asked about what he told his teammates at their final training run on Saturday, Brailey explained how much he missed the weekly experience of playing together and working hard for each other.
“I just told the boys my reason why, more than anything, and it’s something I’ve been simmering on for the last few weeks, and something I’ve been thinking about for a long time,” Brailey said.
“I’ve just got a real fire in the belly at the moment and I’m just so keen to get back to playing footy.
“I just told the boys that I play for my teammates and I play for moments like tonight – when you get the win, and you go through something tough together and come out the other side.
“That’s the reason why I play, and it makes it all worth it, all the tough times, because if it wasn’t as hard as it is, it wouldn’t feel as good.”
