Broncos coach Michael Maguire has explained his decision to stand by Ezra Mam after he was charged with drug driving causing a car crash last year.
Mam was charged with drug driving and copped $120,000 in fines from both the Broncos along with the NRL after he crashed his car into an Uber in October 2024.
He was also banned for the first nine games this season by the NRL.
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But fast forward 12 months and Mam is now preparing to play in his second grand final, with the Broncos going up against the Storm at Accor Stadium in the season decider on Sunday night.
Maguire said he was willing to give Mam another chance because he’d had a relationship with him previously.
“I stood by Ezra because I was lucky enough to know him before I came here,” Maguire told The Daily Telegraph.
“I spoke to him as a younger player.
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“I actually tried to sign him to the Wests Tigers (when Maguire was coach of the club back in 2022) and I knew he was a good person.
“Ezra had made a big mistake and he had to go through a fair journey to get himself back on track and he did that. He was working on a building site, he was doing community work. He paid a big price, but when you get to know someone and what Ezra stands for, that’s the reason I believed he could come out the other side.”
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Mam played a starring role for the Broncos in the 2023 grand final, scoring three tries, before Brisbane hearts were broken by Nathan Cleary, with the Panthers coming from behind to win 26-24.
The 22-year-old admitted he had struggled in the aftermath of the incident last year.
“After the accident, I was pretty much in a dark place,” Mam said.
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“The accident made me realise I needed to deal with certain things that I hadn’t dealt with.
“Just knowing that I let people down away from myself. I was trying to get their trust back and dealing with that was tough.”