Sinking feelings
It's been a tough 12 months for the late-blooming Sea Eagles forward Brenton Lawrence. Not long ago he was touted as an Australian and Queensland forward, but a back injury followed by major surgery has robbed him of momentum and games.
Subsequently he was lumped into the group who may be swept up by Bozo's broom, but he has not been told anything official by the club. To make matters worse he has been dealing with some very different family drama. His partner Casey Devin, a reporter and producer at the Nine News was floored last week when her mum Rhondda and sister Bree were caught up in a drama at sea.
"They were on board a cruise to Antarctica when a fire broke out in the engine room at 1am," Casey said. "They woke up to smoke filling the entire boat and were all locked in a front room to block off the smoke. The engine wouldn't start, no stabilisers on boat, really rough, no one allowed back to rooms, all they had was cold-weather gear, lifejackets and a mobile phone with limited service. The fire started again four hours later, all passengers had to abandon ship. That's when we lost communication with them and that was a very worrying time for us.
"BJ [Brenton James] was amazing. He knew I was very worried. We ended up hearing from them after they'd been rescued, they spent eight hours on a lifeboat in the middle of the ocean because it was too dangerous for anyone to come and rescue them, there were large three-metre swells. They were eventually rescued by a sister vessel and had an eight-hour journey to the mainland, where they were given some donated clothes. They have their passports and that's it. "
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