Was using ice while still playing NRL

Would take a cocktail of marijuana, alcohol, cocaine and pills

At one stage started manufacturing drugs

Was addicted to ice, cocaine and ecstasy by 2004

Is now helping kids in poorer communities turn their lives around

BOXER Solomon Haumono lost his rugby league career to addiction and, in his darkest hell, tried to kill himself. But he’s found wisdom and he’s helping inner-city kids fight ice.

He reveals his full story of addiction for the first time. (WARNING: Readers may find the graphic content disturbing).

IN the haze of an ice binge, Solomon Haumono took a 12-gauge shotgun, placed the barrel in his mouth, stretched his leg into the air and tried to pull the trigger with his big toe.

Flick. Flick. Flick.

He just couldn’t quite catch it.

The tears had stopped streaming down his cheeks long ago. He was an empty shell, hollow of feeling and emotion. A hulking 112kg athlete, all muscle and madness.

Flick. Flick.

“It wouldn’t go off, which was amazing because it was a hair-trigger weapon, so the slightest touch would usually set it off,” Haumono said.

“I look back now and I’m so glad that is not the way I died. I was sitting in my parents’ lounge room, trying to blow my brains out. That’s how they would have found me.”

Instead, he tossed the shotgun on the couch and took more drugs.

media_camera Former NRL player Solomon Haumono, and young adults from The Block who have taken up boxing to escape the ice epidemic plaguing their community

Then he went out that weekend and played in the NRL, one of the most fearsome and explosive players to have graced a rugby league field. After the game he took more drugs.

“I’d start with marijuana, then have a few drinks, then the cocaine, then the ekkie pills,” he said.

“I look back now and I’m so glad that is not the way I died. I was sitting in my parents’ lounge room, trying to blow my brains out.

Solomon Haumono

“I always had to be the guy that went the hardest, that lasted the longest at parties, the last to leave the club. I took the drugs to mask my real issues.”

Haumono suffered depression from a young age.

His breakthrough into the NRL, straight out of high school and into the star-studded Manly Sea Eagles team in 1994, should have been the start of a long and glorious career.

Instead, just five years later, Haumono found himself not only abusing cocktails of hard drugs on a daily basis but also manufacturing 10,000 ecstasy pills each month.

Haumono and his crew would produce thousands of dollars worth of MDMA tablets with a pill press.

“We had been exposed to it all early because it was a part of the area. I grew up in Newtown, and after I made it to the NRL you get a lot of people coming into your life, patting you on the back,” he said.

media_camera Boxer and former NRL player Solomon Haumono has shared his remarkable story.

“Some of them were positive people, others were as lost as I was.

“Eventually, I just decided that I would start manufacturing. I must say that the boys that I was doing this with, they urged me to stay away, they could see that I had something there with my football career, but I was not in a frame of mind to listen, I couldn’t be told.

“We didn’t know what we were doing when we started, we’d use ourselves as guinea pigs to test out the tablets, then alter ingredients as we went before selling them on the streets.

“It was such a despicable thing to do, so harmful, I look back now and regret it so much.”

Sometimes I would run out into the backyard and just start firing my assault rifle into the air, to let my frustrations out

Solomon Haumono

Ten years after his last drug binge, during which he began “seeing demons and hell”, 40-year-old Haumono is ready to open up on one of the most extraordinary stories of our time.

“There are many stories, not just mine, in the NRL, in our families, in society, and things don’t get spoken about because we are taught to harden up,” he said.

“It’s time for me to talk about my story because I want to use it as a warning to the next generation, not to make the mistakes I made.”

Haumono, a professional boxer, is putting his money where his mouth is, setting up a drop-in centre for troubled youths in Redfern with his own funds and the help of the Aboriginal housing company.

He and wife Margaret are running mentoring programs together with Redfern police at The Block, and next Friday, Haumono will have his 27th bout to raise funds for the fight against ice in the area.

Haumono (22-2-2, 20KO) had a two-year break from boxing after 2013 due to promotional issues, but returned last month with a knockout win.

media_camera The Daily Telegraph story about the woman who ruined Solomon’s career. media_camera The story about Solomon and his ‘Pleasure Machine’.

He is due to fight Hunter Sam (11-5-2, 4KO) at Redfern’s National Centre of indigenous Excellence for a regional title.

A host of local youths from ice and drug-affected families who have turned their lives around through boxing will fight amateur bouts.

The ice epidemic is as prevalent in Redfern as anywhere else and Haumono is working with children as young as eight who are using.

“It’s obviously close to home,” he says. “I began using ice while I was still playing in the NRL, I am just so lucky it didn’t take a hold of me like it has so many others.”

He’d clearly lost his way early in his league career, but still, his on-field talent was so undeniable he went on to play for NSW and Australia during SuperLeague while regularly abusing drugs.

After his 1996 falling out with then Manly coach Bob Fulton, who he would later apologise to, Haumono got a deal with Canterbury Bulldogs, and after that Balmain Tigers, and then St George Illawarra Dragons.

But despite signing for the Dragons in late 1999, Haumono was not seen by the club until the second round of the NRL in 2000.

He’d spent the entire pre-season making and selling drugs and spending days on end peering out from behind his bedroom window curtain clutching a Russian assault rifle as paranoia flooded his mind.

“I rocked up at training, I had a meeting with [then coach] David Waite, and he had been contacted by the police about me,” he said.

“I’m not sure if it was a task force but they had been following me around, they knew who I was mixing with and that I was up to some mischief, and had let the Dragons know about it.

“They were ready to move on. I remember begging David for another chance, I said I’d play for free, I just wanted to prove myself.”

But after just two games, Haumono was dropped to reserve grade and continued to manufacture ecstasy pills in between training sessions.

“I was really unstable, I was still bingeing off drugs, the neighbours must have thought I was crazy because sometimes I would run out into the backyard and just start firing my assault rifle into the air to let my frustrations out,” he said.

“I can’t even tell you how many times I thought about killing myself, I don’t remember, but it was a lot.”

media_camera Solomon Haumono while playing for Manly v Cronulla in 2004.

His infamous dash to England to pursue former girlfriend Gabrielle Richens, known as The Pleasure Machine, while at the Bulldogs — which actually happened months earlier than when it was reported to have transpired after Haumono unsuccessfully used it as a ruse to get out of his $400,000 contract — left him mentally unhinged.

“I tried to kill myself when all that went down. I tied a belt to my bedpost, tried to hang myself, pulled back at the last second, just couldn’t go through with it,” Haumono said.

“I was invited to be part of the Kangaroos’ training squad but instead I chased her to England before anyone knew about it.

“When I got there, she was very surprised and obviously didn’t have intentions of continuing our relationship. I was devastated.”

After Haumono returned and stopped short of his suicide attempt, his close friend Anthony Mundine concocted an outrageous idea to get the back-rower to his Dragons, where the pair could play together.

Months later, Mundine told Haumono to fly back to London, then a story was leaked to the media that Haumono was chasing Richens on the other side of the world.

In fact, Haumono sat quietly in a London hotel room for a week before Mundine flew over to bring him back to Sydney.

I look back now and regret it so much. I want to use my story as a warning to the next generation

Solomon Haumono

They hoped that the Bulldogs would view Haumono as so unstable they’d tear up his contract, allowing him to move to the Dragons.

“But the Bulldogs found out about the plot and refused to release me,” Haumono said.

It was around this time Haumono began paying attention to Mundine’s cousin, Margaret, whom he’d known since childhood.

Within a year, they were in a relationship — they would get married in 2006 — but Haumono’s wild ways only increased.

Despite having two young children at home, Haumono hit the nightclubs with more vigour.

“I was abusing a cocktail of drugs throughout my career, and then eventually ice, because I heard it would enhance sexual performance. I would take it and be awake for one week straight. Then I’d wake up not knowing where I was.”

Margaret said: “He’d leave home on Monday and I wouldn’t see him ’til Sunday. Then he’d start an argument with me to get out of the house again.”

media_camera Haumono & girlfriend Gabrielle Richens in 1998. media_camera Haumono arrives at Sydney after his disappearance.

Her heart would clench up when he’d run out into the middle of the road trying to tackle moving cars.

Haumono quit the NRL in 2000 to take up boxing fulltime alongside Mundine, but returned to league in 2003 with the Sea Eagles and dominated the competition, making the City representative team.

Yet the binges continued. By 2004, Haumono was addicted to ice, cocaine and ecstasy.

“I felt empty, and the drugs would get me up, but after a while even that didn’t work, I’d take a bunch of them and I’d still feel down,” he said.

It begs the question; did he have enough support from the NRL to deal with his issues?

“You know what? All the help I needed was there,” Haumono said. “But I just couldn’t help myself.”

Sensing death or jail was looming, Haumono made a snap decision to move his young family to England without a club or offer.

Manly agreed to release him early and then the London Broncos tabled a two-year deal. He won the players’ player award there in 2005, then while out celebrating at a London nightclub with a cocktail of drugs, Haumono’s world changed.

“We were in a four-level nightclub and I began to see demons in people, and as I went down each floor it was like I was getting closer to hell,” he said.

“I believe God was showing me where I was going. I was so scared, I ran out of there and have never touched a drug since.”

media_camera Solomon Haumono is helping kids escape the ice epidemic plaguing their communities.

Haumono became strongly religious and believes his “second chance” must be used to mentor youth who are on the same crash course he was on.

“I had a number of times throughout my NRL career where I would stop using drugs, and then relapse, but after my religious awakening I never went back.

“I have not thought about suicide since those days either. I came to realise the gift that I do have, the precious gift of life, is something to cherish,” he said.

Now settled with boxing promoter Matt Rose, brother of NRL player George Rose, Haumono is embarking on his plan to become a world champion while helping the most vulnerable in his community.

“My loving God blessed me with my wife Margaret, without her and my five children I wouldn’t be who I am today.

“I’m not special in any way, I’m not hard done by, I am just thankful for my time here on Earth.”

DON’T MISS PART II OF HAUMONO’S STORY IN MONDAY’S TELEGRAPH

If you are struggling with any of the issues raised in this story contact Lifeline on 131144 or click here.

SOLOMON HAUMONO vs. HUNTER SAM

Friday, October 30, 6pm

“Fight Against Ice” event

National Centre of indigenous Excellence, 166-180 George St, Redfern.

Tickets can be purchased at NCIE from today.

Donations towards the mentoring program can be made by emailing Margaret@redfernyouthconnect.org.