Now, he's back in the headlines.
There's actually been a lot of,
or a few high-profile, Indigenous people
coming out against boycotting the national anthem:
Lance Franklin, Linda Burney.
What do you think a boycott achieves?
It's for our future.
I've grown up as an Aboriginal man
that was looked differently and treated differently
because of the colour of my skin.
You know, there was a picture of me
when I was playing for Souths
and all the team was embraced to sing the national anthem
and I stood off by myself.
That was like my silent little protest back in 2007.
I believe that national anthem does not represent our people.
That every time we see the flag raised,
it shows the Union Jack.
And to us that represents bloodshed and torture and rape
of mass people, by the thousands.
How disrespectful do you think it is to our people
that have to stand through that?
It's kind of kicked off in a big way in the US
with black sporting stars
refusing to stand for the national anthem
in support of Black Lives Matter.
Are you hoping that a similar thing,
momentum, could grow here in Australia?
People say that the whole Black Lives Matter thing
is an American campaign and we shouldn't bring it here,
and so forth.
But the oppression of our people,
Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander First Nation people,
out here in Australia
is on par with anyone in the world.
A cousin of mine got shot two weeks ago.
He got shot in the back, unarmed.
He's alive, he's awake, but...
We want answers. We want answers, you know, like:
How and why do you shoot a man in the back
that's unarmed?
When your career was first taking off,
you were also dealing with a lot of things at home,
in terms of substance abuse, as well.
Can you tell us what that was like?
Alcoholism was rampant in my family and...
rampant with my teenage years, as well.
The addiction process was laying dormant,
waiting to erupt in my body.
I grew up wanting to be a Rugby League star, you know,
and I soon found myself drinking alcohol and taking drugs
as the priority, not training and being
the best Rugby League player I could.
You did kind of face your addictions
and decide to give everything up.
What was the tipping point for that?
I went from a red hot... start in the NRL to...
a really average season.
Second season.
You know, you drink as much alcohol as you possibly could,
if you're like me and couldn't handle it,
and then you take as much drugs as you possibly could
to sober yourself up, just to keep partying again.
My life was either going to end up in gaol or dead.
I had to make a decision to smarten it up pretty fast
cos I was damaging all the people around me
and I was losing my family,
I was pushing everyone away from me, and...
I made the decision to give away alcohol and drugs.
How did that feel, to be clean?
Eleven years later, I still battle it.
Something that'll never go away from me.
You were diagnosed with bipolar disorder
a year after your gave up NRL.
What was it like finding out that you had a mental illness?
It, ah, makes sense.
The alcohol and drugs were,
were more a mask for what was going on inside my head, mentally.
The dialogue that tells me I'm not good enough every day,
questions every single decision I make.
I'll be honest, boxing saved my life.
The day I walked into a boxing gym and I started training,
I started to learn how to defeat my demons in my head.
Because you give up in a boxing ring, you get beat.
You get knocked out. You lose your teeth.
I like my teeth.
But... mental health.
You give up in your mental health
and your battles and the grind of it daily,
you end up dead.
2012 you did try to take your own life.
What was happening in your world around then?
A few things.
Ah, I went through a marriage breakdown,
probably 18 months, two years before,
but I went through another relationship breakdown, as well.
Ah, it was just compounded with, again, that inter dialogue,
that negative dialogue that was going on inside my head.
And those voices that tell me that I wasn't good enough
and that I'd never amount to anything and I should kill myself.
I started to believe.
What happened that morning?
What was going through your head and what happened the next day?
The last thing I remember is, is getting out of a shower
and writing the letters to my kids
that I'm sorry I'm not going to be around anymore.
You know, I'm sorry I'm not going to be there
for the things that matter most.
How did you feel when you survived that,
when you found out that you'd survived that?
I made a decision that every day I open my eyes
I get to make a positive impact on somebody's life.
I realised I was pretty lucky.
What's actually keeping you holding on right now, every day?
Aboriginal culture.
I sat out in the bush one day with an uncle of mine
and he said
"Son, you stick close to this stuff
and your mental health problems will all but go away."
I didn't believe it.
I loved my journey with the NRL.
But the most significant journey I've had,
and I am having,
is the one I am with my cultural values now.
Do you feel like Indigenous sporting stars
have a responsibility to advocate for our mob and our community?
I don't think they have a responsibility to do it
because, you know what?
They're not politicians, they're sports stars.
I'm lucky I wanted to be both.