PHOTO
As Terence Seuseu's rugby league career reaches a crossroads a distant relative at the New Zealand Warriors has urged him to take the path to redemption.
The 23-year-old is essentially on probation at the Manly Sea Eagles after being arrested and fined for urinating in a public place in Sydney on Sunday night, news that concerned former Warriors front rower Jerry Seuseu.
A former Samoa and Kiwis international who played 132 times for the Warriors between 1997 and 2004, Jerry Seuseu is now the National Rugby League (NRL) club's welfare and education officer - his brief includes warning new signings about the risks associated with life as a professional footballer.
"He's been caught out and hopefully he'll learn from it," Jerry Seuseu told NZPA.
Jerry Seuseu said he did not know Terence well having only met him last year when the Samoan national team was in camp.
He was reluctant to reach out personally to the son of his first cousin saying Manly should have enough support mechanisms in place, including his counterpart Luke Williamson.
However, he did say Terence Seuseu's predicament should serve as a warning to young players throughout the NRL.
"In Auckland it's something (public urination) .... you see it all the time by Joe Bloggs. But when you have a profile you have to make sure you do everything right."
The Auckland-born Samoan international was apprehended with Anthony Watmough, the Kangaroos and NSW State of Origin representative who also has a chequered disciplinary history.
The pair have been stood down from Saturday night's game at Cronulla and fined a week's wages by the club.
Watmough's rap sheet includes losing his licence for exceeding the speed limit by 53kph two months ago and an altercation with a sponsor at the club's season launch in 2009 which resulted in a $10,000 fine.
Terence Seuseu, a talented hooker likened in playing style to Kiwis and South Sydney star Issac Luke, first jeopardised his career in 2008 when he was sacked by the Newcastle Knights after repeated drink driving convictions.
He made his first grade debut the previous season and was earmarked by then Knights head coach Brian Smith as a future New Zealand test player.
Terence Seuseu chose to represent Samoa at the 2008 World Cup and resurrected his career at Cronulla, spending two seasons at the Sharks before joining Manly last season.
He made four appearances in 2010 and had already matched that figure by featuring in every 17-man squad as a back-up to starting hooker Matt Ballin.
But this indiscretion in Manly's pedestrian mall - 100m from two hotels with toilet facilities - now has him in danger of following the same career path of Arana Taumata, another troubled New Zealand talent.
The five-eighth, who turns 22 next week, has already been on the books of seven National Rugby League clubs - reserve grade at Penrith is the latest destination of a tumultuous career that has seen him sacked by the Brisbane Broncos, Sydney Roosters, Bulldogs and Melbourne Storm for disciplinary reasons.
Meanwhile, rugby league fared worst when a survey found only one in four Australians considered professional footballers were good role models for young people.
When asked which code provided the best role models, one third of the 1000 respondents in the UMR Research survey answered none, one third plumped for soccer and only one in 20 answered rugby league.
South Sydney forward Sam Burgess, who arrived from England less than two years ago, was embarrassed by the survey results.
"I find it a bit of a shock to hear we're on the bottom of the list.
"There is a stigma because there's five per cent of the whole game who get in trouble but across the board I think rugby league players are very nice, down-to-earth blokes."