Former NRL player Solomon Huamono is chasing glory after being nominated for The Frownlow Medal Hall of Fame for drug abuse and a bizarre mid-season dash to the other side of the world.
Huamono confessed to an addiction to marijuana, ecstasy and ice during his NRL career and said that the drug abuse was so severe that he suffered from depression and attempted to commit suicide.
The Frownlow Medal is awarded to the player whose off-field demeanour epitomises the values of the modern-day footballer and draws attention to the status of footballers as role models to young Australians. It covers Australia’s four major football codes; the National Rugby League (NRL), Australian Football League (AFL), the A-League (Football) and Rugby Union’s Super Rugby competition. NRL player Shaun Kenny-Dowall won the inaugural medal in 2015 and former NRL player Ben Barba is the most recent recipient.
The Frownlow Medal Hall of Fame honours former players and players who received media attention in previous seasons, for similarly scandalous behaviour, and its inductees include Ben Cousins and Julian O’Neill.
Huamono also confessed that he manufactured his own drugs and tested them on himself at the height of his addiction.
The front-rower was also at the centre of one of the more bizarre tales in Rugby League in 1998. Huamono walked out on the Canterbury Bulldogs in the middle of the season to chase supermodel Gabrielle ‘The Pleasure Machine’ Richens in The UK. The story earned Huamono a degree of fame at the time, but is it enough to earn him a place in The Frownlow Medal Hall of Fame?
Image: NuNa
The Frownlow Medal 