(Photo: Marcus Priaulx)
March 26, 2015
by Marcus Priaulx
Barambah PaCE
Cherbourg Hornets’ rugby league player Dennis Sandow says education should always come before footy.
The champion fullback believes going to school every day is a must for those wanting get the best out of life.
The Murgon State High School graduate of 2001 grew up with younger brother, Parramatta’s Chris Sandow, and was great mates with former Australian test centre Willie Tonga.
Dennis and Willie were Cherbourg Hornets teammates as kids and would go for extra training runs in the afternoon.
“We had to go to school of a morning,” Dennis, 30, said.
But he’s glad his parents, Rhonda and Stevie, made him.
“You don’t have to be smart to go to school but it’s always good to go to school,” he said.
He said NRL clubs now expected their recruits to have gone to school every day and have decent grades.
“They need their players to have the discipline of turning up every day and listening,” Dennis said.
“That’s what they’re looking for now.”
Dennis trialled with the Parramatta club shortly after graduating from Year 12 and was sent to its feeder club, the Central Queensland Comets in Rockhampton.
Life after rugby league
After a year, the now father of two sons and a girl aged 10, 8 and 2, began to run out of money.
“I couldn’t get a job,” he said.
So Dennis returned to Cherbourg and worked as a tiler for 10 years before the occupational hazards of sore knees and back began to tell.
Four months ago he became an apprentice cabinet maker with Cherbourg Joinery.
“I like it,” he said.
“We’re always doing something different.”
He encourages young people to chase their dreams but not be disheartened if they don’t achieve them.
Dennis said education was important because it enabled people to get on in life for as long as they lived.
“Footy’s not always going to be there,” Dennis said.
“You could get a career ending injury or get old. That’s why education’s important. If you don’t have an education life becomes hard.”
