Source :- PERTH NOW NEWS
Brisbane coach Michael Maguire has no regrets about giving Ezra Mam the opportunity to salvage his career.
After serving a nine-match ban, the 22-year-old will play his first NRL game in 2025 on Sunday, seven months after a head-on collision with an Uber where he drove unlicensed and with drugs in his system.
The three occupants of the Uber were injured, including a young girl.
There were calls externally for Mam to have his contract torn up but the club resisted and allowed their star playmaker to redeem himself.
“When I first walked in, I looked at the scenario. I take people for who they are. I was fortunate to know Ezra from five or six years ago,” he said.
“I got to know the family and I know the person. Ezra to his credit has taken on board what he’s been through.
“He has grown as a man and what I have seen him do around the place, is the reason why I’m glad I kept him. He is really hungry to get out there and play with his teammates.
“Last week, he went back to (Souths Logan) and he was just excited about playing. He was excited about playing for the Broncos and the people he’s had plenty of cheers from.”
Maguire said the first day he arrived at the club Mam had to own his mistake. He also said he was determined to “have a look at how (Mam) ended up getting in that situation”.
Maguire discovered, when he investigated the culture at the club in 2024, Mam had been caught up in an environment where alcohol-fuelled partying was far too prevalent.
CEO David Donaghy alluded to it in October last year when he said the club had cultural challenges and its football program had lost its focus.
Mam checked into a rehabilitation facility and worked on changing his lifestyle and his behaviour. He worked on a building site and did other activities behind the scenes to rebuild his life.
There have been plenty of people involved in the game that wanted Mam to be suspended for the entire year. The NRL made the call for a nine-month suspension, a ban which ended last week when Mam returned to the field for Souths Logan in the Queensland Cup.
Broncos great Steve Renouf said Maguire had made the right call by sticking with Mam.
“I do admire Madge for that. He understands young men. He just couldn’t throw him on the scrap heap,” Renouf said.
“Ezra has done his time. Whether people agree with his punishment or not that is the suspension he was given. He has done it and he has done it with grace. Now he just has to get on with it.
“Yes, he stuffed up but he will never do that again.”Prop Pat Carrigan said he was glad to have Mam back.
“Ez’ made a mistake, but part of his growth as a young man and a member of our club was to own that and move forward and he has done that,” he said.
“To see his progress over the last 10 to 11 weeks, not only on the field, but off the field, he has earned the opportunity to come back and he will have to keep working on himself.”
