Lima gets second chance
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JEFF Lima knows he is one of the luckiest men in rugby league, and he cites his lucky escape from a prison sentence as proof of that.
It's not every day you get a shot at an NRL premiership ring. Not after you quit the game for a part-time dalliance in France. And certainly not when you faced the prospect of rotting in a prison cell.
The hulking Storm prop is the feel-good story of the NRL grand final, a 107kg wrecking ball who has risen from the scrap heap to face Manly tonight.
Four years ago, winning a premiership was the last thing on Lima's radar. His life was in turmoil after being sentenced to 12 months' weekend jail for his role in an assault that put two people in hospital.
As he braced for incarceration, his sentence was modified, with Lima handed a suspended jail term and placed on a good behaviour bond.
When he runs out to rip into the Sea Eagles in the biggest match of his life, the 25-year-old won't need a crash course in making the most of an opportunity.
I've beaten the bad times in my life, said Lima, who was a rising front-rower at the Wests Tigers when he was involved in the alcohol-fuelled incident in 2004.
I had some off-field issues but the Tigers helped put my life back on track.
I was very lucky not to go to jail. I'd had too much alcohol and I got into a stupid fight. I regret what happened but I've done my best to put it all behind me.
I was brought up in a good family and up until that incident I didn't have a problem.
I was just lucky that the judge gave me another chance. It turned my life around.
Picked up by the Storm last year in the midst of a front-row injury crisis, Lima has proved a revelation. The rotund Kiwi has played the most games of any Storm forward this season, chalking up 24 on a living allowance of $800 a week.
Lima puts his resurrection down to a gruelling off-season in which he shed 12kg as a star recruit of the Storm's fat club.
The fast-food diet is gone. In his prime, Lima would put away five chicken burgers, washed down with a large cola.
I didn't collapse at my first training session (in Melbourne), I nearly died instead, he said. But you have to train hard to get places in this game.
I didn't even think I'd play first grade this year, so winning the grand final would be a dream.
Storm recruitment chief Peter O'Sullivan says Lima has been a bargain addition to the club's roster.
Robbie Farah had a wrap on him at the Tigers but he had a bad rap as a trainer and he was a bit loose off the field. I felt if we got him into our system, he might mature a bit, O'Sullivan said.
If you'd have told me at this stage last year he'd be part of Melbourne's 17 week in, week out I would have said you're off with the pixies, but Jeff has been fantastic.
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