We won the comp in 2014 but the next couple of years weren’t great for me, on or off the field. Things happened at the Rabbitohs and I had to leave the club.

That just happens in footy, and in life. It happens to a lot of people.

Not everything’s going to be rosy and they’re the times when you find out who you are, and who you want to be. You’ve got to stick true to yourself. If you do that, you’ll be fine when things come good.

Those hard times made me a better person and player.

There were more challenges this year. I broke my jaw in pre-season and went through a couple of months of really bad headaches. I had an MCL injury later in the season, right when we were building towards the finals.

A big part of my decision to come to the Roosters was the belief that I could win another premiership, with the players and coaches that they had. We got close last year and missed out, so I was stoked to get it done this year. For the club, for the fans, for every single person involved.

It’s a little bit more special this time than 2014. I was young then, only in my first season, and probably took it for granted a bit. I’ve played more games now and I’ve been through some highs and lows.

Winning the Clive Churchill Medal is something I’ll probably reflect on it a bit later on in life. The ring is the most important thing, the individual stuff is just a bit of icing on the cake. That medal belongs to every single person that had anything to do with our team throughout the year.

Robbo is at the top of that list.

He’s such a smart bloke and he’s got all those extra little things that great coaches have. He cares about his players, he knows how to deal with people, and he just puts in a lot of time and effort with everything.

Keeping the NRL’s best attacking team, South Sydney, tryless in the preliminary final – it is incredible the amount of work that goes into that type of performance, from Robbo, Craig Fitzgibbon and the players. That was a special game. And once we had the lead in the grand final, we couldn’t help but be confident about our defence winning us the game.

Defence wins you premierships. Anyone who knows anything about footy knows that. We knew that earlier in the year, when there was some criticism of our attack, and we knew it during the finals.

We proved it again on Sunday.