In , he played every game and broke the NRL record for the most points scored in a season whilst breaking the record for the most consecutive goals with Hazem played in the Preliminary Final loss against the Roosters. In , Hazem once again played every game and broke his previous record for the most points in a season, being the first player to score points in a season He broke Terry Lamb's club record for the most club tries in a career.
Hazem played in the Premiership winning team against the Roosters and scored his th first grade try in the Grand Final win. He then went on to break Daryl Halligan's record for scoring the most points for the club before also breaking Daryl Halligan's record for most first grade points for the club. After playing consecutive first grade games for the club, the sequence was broken when he was injured late in the season.
In , Hazem played every game minutes and was the competition's leading point scorer for the fourth time. He also broke Terry Lamb's record for the most points in a match when he scored 34 points four tries and nine goals against the Wests Tigers in Round 2 at Telstra Stadium. Hazem played in the Preliminary Final loss against the Brisbane Broncos.
On July 4, Hazem made his State of Origin debut at Suncorp Stadium for New South Wales - scoring 10 points from three difficult conversions and a four-pointer in the dying stages to help the Blues to an victory. Hazem was again the NRL top point scorer in season - the fifth time in his career.
He scored points after the regular rounds and added a further eight points to his tally in the finals series In all, he has played 18 Jersey Flegg games or equivalent , 30 Premier League games or reserve grade equivalent , seven World Club Challenge games and first grade games. It would be hard to argue with someone claiming Hazem El Masri to be the best goal kicker the game has ever seen. Arwa's support of El Masri throughout the ordeal never wavered, launching a passionate defence of his character and slamming the NRL's decision not to retain him as an ambassador until a verdict had been reached.
The charges against El Masri were dropped in March last year. The Bulldogs reinstated El Masri as a club ambassador, allowing him to resume his work in delivering messages to the community about social inclusion. The NRL announced a line-up of 46 ambassadors at the start of the season, but El Masri hasn't rejoined their ranks.
The reunion of El Masri and Arwa is a heart-warming yarn that could have been sold for a motza to TV networks or women's magazines. Instead, they chose to tell their story to The Project , free of charge, because of the sensitive way the program handled a previous interview with El Masri.
We hear the response makes for interesting viewing. The team was on the bus, ready to leave the ground when the gentleman knocked on his window. He may have missed three kicks but he had scored 22 crucial points. For El Masri, the expectations, "especially from the Arabs" were often unrealistically high and he now identifies that kind of pressure as "toxic".
Despite this, he took pride in his culture and religion. He didn't just play for himself, he played for a community that was scrutinised and marginalised at that time. Like a gladiator, he still bears the scars that he says define him and are a testament to his strength. He recalled once taking a call from an elderly Australian woman on a charity telethon for Channel 9. It is moments like these that matter most to him. Asked about the highest point of his career, there was no mention of his records, money, or media coverage.
AFTER dedicating so much of his adult life to rugby league, El Masri's transition into retirement, at 33, was filled with fear. Imagine everything you had ever known and loved suddenly taken away from you. He, like so many elite athletes before him, struggled to find meaning outside the game. To this day, he wishes he could have played longer and won another premiership, but as he puts it, "you look back and realise it went by so quickly, the body just can't handle it anymore … it's too hard.
Instinctively, he dealt with retirement as he would any loss, except, unlike football, there was no next game or season in which to reverse the result. Winning was no longer an option. As such, the loss lingered. At first, to keep busy, he joined the NRL ambassador program and travelled around Australia to promote rugby league.
He also kept ties with the Bulldogs as a club ambassador. He spent a lot of his time giving back to the community by visiting sick children at hospitals and attending schools for career days.
Although this gave him comfort, he was far from content. In attempt to reinvent himself, El Masri fell into a series of financial traps when he trusted the wrong people who he says, "took advantage of my name and fame for money.
It is incidents like these that exacerbated his deep-rooted sense of yearning for the past. I wondered if he misses the comradery, the sporting brotherhood he shared with his teammates over the years. El Masri paused then answered, "like no tomorrow, it's like leaving school, except when you leave school you actually find other friends.
The reality is, in the world beyond the field, El Masri has had to learn to trust himself.
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