In May 2024, the Fijian international was taken into custody and found himself charged with the supply of a prohibited drug, greater than a large commercial quantity; taking part in the supply of a prohibited drug, greater than an indictable and less than commercial quantity; and participating in a criminal group.<\/p>\n
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His house was also raided by police and he was stood down under the NRL\u2019s no-fault policy, preventing him from training or playing with the Blacktown Workers Sea Eagles – Manly\u2019s NSW Cup team at the time.<\/p>\n
Maintaining his innocence throughout the entire court proceedings, all charges were ultimately dropped in November of that same year.<\/p>\n
However, the ordeal proved to be a major turning point, prompting him to reassess his life before earning an NRL lifeline with the Sea Eagles.<\/p>\n
Reflecting on the past, Wakeham admitted that it was \u201cthe best thing to happen\u201d to him and is grateful that the events transpired due to it, leading him to become the person he is today.<\/p>\n
Brandon Wakeham outside Manly Local Court.Source: News Corp Australia<\/p>\n
\u201cI leant on family and close friends. Being off wasn\u2019t ideal and didn\u2019t know if my career as a footballer could continue but now that it\u2019s passed me I don\u2019t really think about it,\u201d Wakeham said.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m on sort of a new journey now and all those things that have happened I don\u2019t think of them. I\u2019m a new person.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhile that was a bad thing to happen for me personally off the field it\u2019s been the best thing to happen to me. <\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m grateful for sort of a shi*** time that happened, but it\u2019s led me to be the person I am.\u201d<\/p>\n
Since then, Wakeham has been focused on rebuilding his career and has made three first-grade appearances for the Sea Eagles during this year\u2019s campaign, with his club debut coming in Round 2.<\/p>\n
Impressing coaches and teammates with his on-field ability this season, he has seemingly locked down the No.9 jersey, having started in dummy-half over the past two weeks.<\/p>\n
But there was a time when he didn\u2019t think he would ever return to the NRL.<\/p>\n
\u201cYeah, definitely. Probably the whole time,\u201d the former Canterbury Bulldogs and Wests Tigers playmaker added.<\/p>\n
\u201cAfter it being so serious and being away from the game it was a bit scary and stuff but I had to find my faith in the Lord.<\/p>\n
\u201cThat\u2019s what I lent on a lot, family and friends and going to church and leaning on faith was massive for me.\u201d<\/p>\n
Teammates love him, opposition hates him | 00:49<\/p>\n
Crediting his support network, Wakeham said leaning on family helped him navigate through the toughest period of his life, particularly his wife, Madelyn.<\/p>\n
\u201cSo proud of this man,\u201d she wrote after he made his club debut with the Sea Eagles, a couple of weeks back.<\/p>\n
\u201cWatching his determination to keep chasing his dream has been incredible.<\/p>\n
\u201cAny positive feels like the biggest blessing, slowing down and soaking in each day as it comes.<\/p>\n
\u201cThanks for the support fam.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Arrested in the Brookvale Oval car park nearly two years ago, Brandon Wakeham has revealed that being taken…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":590857,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[568],"tags":[64,63,761,762,158,85],"class_list":{"0":"post-590856","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-nrl","8":"tag-au","9":"tag-australia","10":"tag-national-rugby-league","11":"tag-nationalrugbyleague","12":"tag-nrl","13":"tag-sports"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/590856","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=590856"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/590856\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/590857"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=590856"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=590856"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=590856"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}