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John Bateman could so easily have ended up in prison. Gone would be those precious moments with his daughter, his Super League titles and the NRL debut he will make for the Canberra Raiders on the Gold Coast on Sunday. Instead, becoming a father at 16 saw him turn away from a world in which his nature suggests he didn't belong, and ultimately join his countrymen Ryan Sutton, Josh Hodgson and Elliott Whitehead on the other side of the world. Daily phone calls to his daughter mean home never feels too far away - not even in the leafy surrounds of Barton as Canberra's four adopted Englishmen recreate The Beatles' famous Abbey Road cover. A shoeless Whitehead is a stickler for detail, while Hodgson and Sutton can't help but laugh as they pick apart an Australian accent's pronunciation of "subtle". Then there is Bateman, whose polite manner belies the stereotype of a hard-nosed 25-year-old hailing from one of Bradford's roughest housing estates. But he wasn't always this way. "When I was a kid, I was a little shit, you know what I mean? I was doing stuff I should never have been doing. It could have got me locked up myself, fighting and stuff like that," Bateman told The Canberra Times. "Where we’re from, people fight with each other to prove points, people want to come out on top. The older boys start getting into drugs. Obviously it’s a part of life, it’s a cruel world we live in nowadays. "It probably got even worse since I was growing up, seeing people when I go back home, seeing lads that are younger than me either locked up or selling drugs. It’s something you don’t want to be involved in. "At a time it clicks in for you and you think ‘shit, I shouldn’t be doing this’." Bateman's wake-up call came during a maths lesson. The 15-year-old troublemaker's eyes rolled as he thought "what have I done now?" when the teacher pulled him out of the classroom. He was told his girlfriend was waiting for him. Just one word went through Bateman's mind when she revealed she was pregnant: "shit". "I didn’t know what to do. I didn’t even tell my mum until seven months in," Bateman said. "When I told her she said ‘how far along is she?’ I was like ‘seven months’. She said ‘I’m going to be a grandma in two months?!’ But now, I wouldn’t change it for the world. It’s one of the best things that has ever happened, she makes me happy as I could be." Millie May Bateman was born three weeks after her father's 16th birthday, leaving the young tyro from Bradford with a choice to make. He could buckle down, or he could fight, do drugs and get locked up. As a 16-year-old Bateman - bearing a teen's trademark rat's tail - jumped into the passenger seat of Whitehead's car to go to Bradford training, he knew he had made the right decision. "I was responsible for someone now, and I can’t really be doing that. I still speak to my mates, I’m pretty close to a few of them, but I’m probably not as close to the ones that are locked up," Bateman said. "For me, it’s part and parcel of growing up. That’s how I’ve been brought up, you live by what you do at the end of the day." Whitehead was already a star on the rise, quickly becoming a household name in the United Kingdom before following international teammate Hodgson to Canberra in 2016. Little did he know the teenager he once picked up from training, the one he always dropped off at the bottom of the hill instead of his doorstep, would one day join them down under - and move in across the road. "I used to make him walk up the hill, he wasn’t happy about that," Whitehead said. "I just used to remember him moaning, ‘ah stop making me walk up the hill’, but he’s over that now… actually I don’t think he is over it, he always mentions it. "I know John pretty well, we’re close mates and we’ve always stayed in contact with each other. It’s good to have him here. He’s a quality player. I played with him for England and I know what he can bring." One thing he brings is perhaps the thickest Yorkshire accent you will find, at least until you meet his daughter. Bateman says if you struggle understanding him, good luck chatting to nine-year-old Millie when she visits with a few family members in the coming weeks. Hodgson knows the feeling all too well - he started the English invasion into Australia's political power base. Before he was Canberra's co-captain, a Dally M medal contender or widely regarded as one of the best hookers in the game, he was just a bloke from Hull that needed subtitles. "When I first got here, I was the first one and I had everyone looking at me frowning constantly. You could tell they were trying to concentrate so hard on what I was saying," Hodgson said. "He’s getting there slowly, picking up a few Aussie words and saying a few Aussie things I call him out on. They’ve slotted in really well. On and off the field they have added a lot to the club. "It helps a little bit having English blokes already here too, they bounce questions off you about when you first came, or what you do with this or what you do with that. It can be a tough transition, especially the first few months, so they’ve started off really well." So well that they have both walked into Ricky Stuart's round one side. Bateman's selection had long seemed a fait accompli, with the 15-Test veteran named at lock. While Sutton has 119 Super League caps to his name, he felt the need to prove himself all over again in search of an NRL debut and an England jersey. "It feels like we’re taking over at the minute. Even on the coaching staff we’ve got a few Englishmen there," Sutton said. "You’re always striving to better yourself and they say this is the best competition in the world. You want to come over and test yourself as much as you can. "I’ve got the opportunity to do that, so as soon as that came I wanted to come over and prove a point."

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