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Former Canberra Raiders skipper Alan Tongue still remembers being told he'd never play in the NRL, but he's using his journey to help inspire a new generation of children. Tongue has completed another year of running his Aspire program in schools around Canberra, reaching out to almost 300 students to help them set life goals. The cult hero forward has been working with children for the past five years after retiring as a Green Machine 220-game veteran. His efforts to help at-risk youth led to him being named the ACT Australian of the year at a function in October. "Parts of my footballing challenges there, I wasn't the most skilful or the biggest guy," Tongue said. "There was probably a lack of belief in myself and maybe people around me had that at times as well. "That was challenging and I had to overcome that. There were problems with alcohol with family back home and challenges in my own life. "There have been some wrong decisions I've made and looking back now I wish I probably would have applied myself better at school," he said. "I tried to catch up later in life and so we talk about education being the foundation. It's viewing life as an opportunity rather than thinking of it as an obligation. Tongue has been visiting schools with his eight-week program, which has been modified over the years after starting at the Bimberi Youth Justice Centre in 2012. He has become a role model for teenagers and he has a variety of strategies to show them there is always a consequence for their actions. Tongue was back at Raiders headquarters on Thursday for the final session of the year with a huge day of activities and drills. He spent 13 years trying to build the Raiders into a premiership contender but walked away with limited finals experience and a reputation as being a leader of men. "I played for the Raiders for 13 years and I didn't win one premiership, but I don't look back at my time as unsuccessful. I gave it everything I could, worked as hard as I could for me and the organisation," Tongue said. "I walked away knowing I'd given my best and if everyone can do that, you've been a success in my eyes." Tongue's Australian of the year recognition came after he implemented youth intervention and rehabilitation programs at Bimberi, the Alexander Maconochie Centre and disengaged youth in Canberra's schools. He has also partnered Barnardos to teach young people how to have respectful relationships and regularly serves breakfast to Canberra's homeless at the Early Morning Centre. Tongue's programs are run concurrently at numerous schools, including Harrison, Gold Creek, Amaroo, Gungahlin College, Kingsford Smith and Belconnen. "There are so many common values and characteristics in sports people that I believe are good characteristics for success in life," Tongue said. "I shared with the students how special it was to basically live here [at Raiders headquarters] during my career and that's something special in my eyes."

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