When Luke Bateman was at the peak of his NRL career in 2019, his life outwardly exemplified the dream of many young Australian men.
At 24, earning hundreds of thousands of dollars a year to play the sport he loved, he said his days — and nights — were packed with excess.
But the reality was much grimmer.
“I don’t really look back on it very fondly,” he told triple j hack.
“I was struggling with addiction and depression and I don’t remember a lot of it because I was on autopilot every day.
“I just had this construct of, as long as everybody else around me thinks that I’m still holding it together … still leading a normal life, then it’s all good.”
The addiction was gambling.