Screenshot courtesy of https://www.tvnz.co.nz/one-news/
The infamous Hopoate rugby league family is preparing to unleash another volatile muscle mass on the National Rugby League, this time in the form of 21 year old Jamil Hopoate.The son of former NRL bad boy, John Hopoate, Jamil served nine months of an 18 month prison term in 2014 for assault occasioning actual bodily harm but had hoped to line up for the Manly Sea Eagles NRL side in their last game of the season against Penrith this Sunday after receiving the call up from selectors.The NRL integrity unit has since stepped in to block his return, declaring Hopoate must undergo further rehabilitation before he can play.The rampaging backrower and junior football star had his contract shredded by Manly while playing in their under 20s squad after he and group of mates punched and kicked a man until he was unconscious outside a pub on the northern beaches of Sydney.Jamil is one of eight children to John Hopoate. He is also the brother of Canterbury Bulldogs and NSW Origin star, William.The family's paths couldn't be more divergent. John, you may recall, was the subject of one of the most damning controversies in world sport after he was found to have been jamming his fingers in the arseholes of opponents in a bid to unsettle them in a series of matches in 2001.He was served with a 12 match suspension but played a further four seasons until he struck Keith Galloway with one of the most surreal high-shots in the history of the game. A hit that earned him a 17 match suspension, which he took as his cue to hang up the boots and retire from the game's top level.He wasn't finished. Hoppa returned to play park football in Manly's A-Grade competition where he king hit local Asquith amateur, Joel Latham in 2011, earning him a straight send off.Hopoate also tried his hand at a professional boxing career, fighting on the undercard to the Anthony Mundine vs Danny Green card, while moonlighting as a bouncer at a Kings Cross bar. It was there, outside the Trademark hotel, that he and another security guard were embroiled in a fight with two brothers that saw one of them killed. Hopoate escaped charge but his partner on the night was sentenced to 18 months behind bars for the death.William Hopoate is a mormon who famously walked away from rugby league at the peak of his powers for a two year stint performing missionary duties for his church. He has since returned and is one of the form players in the competition at the Canterbury Bulldogs. Another of John Hopoate's sons, Albert, is also making his mark on the game in the junior grades, dominating the Harold Mathews competition and earning selection in the NSW Under 16s State of Origin Team that defeated Queensland 12-10 earlier this year.
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