When Albert Hopoate runs out for Canberra against the Dolphins in Wagga Wagga on Saturday his career is still just beginning but the 21-year old has already done so much just to be there at all.
The Raiders winger will be playing just his 18th NRL game and has far more football in front of him than behind him. He is a long way from what he will one day become but he's also come a long way already and therein lies his triumph.
It's very easy to imagine a different path, one where everything he was supposed to have slipped away, where none of this ever happened to him.
When he was a kid that would have been unthinkable. He might be a surprise packet now that he's averaging 161.1 metres per game – which puts him in the top 10 amongst regular wingers in the entire league – but those in the know aren't shocked because there was a time when every junior scout in the country in both rugby codes knew all about Albert Hopoate.
In junior football there are stars and there are studs and there are home run, slam-dunk, can't-miss prospects and Hopoate, as a boy, was the latter.
The list of accolades is long, cause there weren't many junior rep sides in either rugby code Hopoate didn't play for, so let's instead allow some actions to speak louder than words.
Every now and then a viral clip helps a junior footballer bounce out of the confines of the lonely suburban fields where boys try to make their dreams come true and Hopoate had a few of them.
The fourth of John and Brenda Hopoate's 11 children became famous on the rugby league internet after that, which is a lot to deal with when you're 15. It'd make anyone's head spin, but Hopoate wouldn't let it get him.
"I didn't give much attention to that media stuff, mum and dad always told me not to listen to them because they get in your head," Hopoate said.
"I just played footy and tried to enjoy it, so I didn't feel too much pressure from that stuff. I just did my own thing and minded my own business."
The clips kept coming. When Hopoate played Under 16s for New South Wales, he engineered a last-second winning try from deep in his own half. Later on, he played Australian Schoolboys rugby and rugby sevens.
A start with Manly was not just assured, it was awaited. Many are called to this path but few are chosen. Albert Hopoate was chosen.
That's when it all started. There was a blown ACL and a lost season in 2018. Then, two games into his comeback the following year, another blown ACL knocked him out for 2019.
Throw in COVID wiping out lower grade football for all of 2020 and Hopoate's career was almost over when he was still a teenager, vanished in a sea of cancelled games, physio trips and frustration at the betrayal of his own body.
Injuries take footballers to dark and lonely places. It can strip them of their identity because so many of them, in their minds, are players before they are anything else. What does a player become when he can't play?
It's a tough question to answer, one that's claimed many a career, young and old. It nearly claimed Hopoate. Those highlights could have been as good as it ever got but the dream kept him going.
"All footy players know that when you're not playing it's a dark place. Back to back ACL's, losing two full seasons, was really tough. Having that dream in mind kept me motivated and talking to the boys, I knew a few who had it worse than me and that helped keep a positive mindset," Hopoate said.
"There was definitely doubt, you always have dark days where you're sooking and ready to give up but because I was still young I still had a lot of love for the game. It was still my dream to play in the NRL.
"Those dark days were tough times but I'm really glad I'm past that and hopefully I can keep a positive mindset. I look back at it like the setback before the comeback."
Stars can be born in a moment but rebuilding them takes time. Hopoate spent over 800 days in injury rehab before finally making his NRL debut in 2020. Then-Sea Eagles coach Des Hasler called it one of the great sporting stories.
All told, he played the final five games of the season. Manly didn't re-sign him. Hopoate needed a new start and he found one in Canberra.
"There was an opportunity and I thought it would be a good restart, come into a new team, a new environment. It was a refresh and I was ready to learn and grow and play some more footy, to keep developing as a young player," Hopoate said.
After playing just a handful of games in almost four years, progress was slow, but steady.
Half a season in reserve grade in 2021, before COVID shuttered the lower grades again. A full season the following year, plus a few first-grade games. With each game, Hopoate got closer to the player he once promised to be.
A succession of injuries to Canberra's outside backs have kept him in the starting side every week since Round 2. He's second on the team for average run metres and looks more and more like a permanent first grader every day.
Things are happening. Wheels are in motion. He is playing and playing and playing and it's been a long time coming but Hopoate is finally where he was always supposed to be.
"Getting more games under my belt, gaining more confidence, picking up on all the little things I missed out on, it makes a difference," Hopoate said.
"I probably went three or four years where I only played a couple of games, so having back-to-back games and seasons is heaps good.
"I'm just doing my job, whether it's taking those yardage carries or returning kicks, it's just the small things that make my job a lot better and help the team be better.
"I just want to do that consistently and I do feel like I'm getting better each game but there's still a lot to improve."
If Hopoate stays the way he is there will be a place for him in the NRL for years to come. He carries the ball well, he hits and sticks in defence, he works hard out of his own end and he's coachable, which means he can improve.
He'll have a bit more time, at least, to do that in the top grade. With Nick Cotric's return date uncertain, Hopoate is expected to retain his spot next to Jarrod Croker on the left edge for a while yet.
Given he's off-contract it'll put him in the shop window, although he's open to staying with the Raiders.
The Green Machine has won their last two with Hopoate playing well in the victories over the Broncos and Dragons.
If things keep going the way they've gone some of the clubs that once would have given anything to land Hopoate will be calling again. The circle will come all the way around.
"I love it down here. It's not too far from home so I can still go see family but I feel like I'm part of the family down here as well," Hopoate said.
"The attitude towards our defence has been the big thing for us over the last few weeks.
"We're backing each other up more, even when we make mistakes there's still positive vibes around instead of looking down on each other. We have confidence to back each other, no matter what."
After missing so much time, Hopoate now making up for it and who knows what another season, another pre-season and a few more games after that might bring? The sky was once the limit for Albert Hopoate. It still might be again.
