“I STILL literally dream of playing for the Rabbitohs and by that I mean I have actual dreams where I’m called out of the stands to run on and kick the final goal.

“I could say I was doing this for altruistic purposes but really my endgame is to pull on the red and green at some point.”

Adam Hills has carved out an outrageously successful career as a comedian who makes light of his disability.

Born without a right foot, the rugby league loving Aussie never had a shot of fulfilling his dream of knocking over the winning goal as a sea of cardinal and myrtle chanted his name from the stands.

Round 19

That may seem like a minor thing when you consider the challenges people with physical disabilities meet and overcome on a daily basis.

But a life is built on the pursuit of dreams, so there’s a certain sadness that accompanies a dream dashed before the pursuit can even begin.

It’s why you can hear the joy in Hills’ voice when he describes what it’s been like to get out on a rugby league field and start chasing his dream at the age of 47.

Adam Hills dives over for a try for Warrington. Source: Supplied

Every Tuesday, the host of British comedy show The Last Leg boards a fast train in London for a two-hour trip north to Warrington where he trains for an hour with the Super League side’s new Physical Disability Rugby League team.

The sport, which was invented by Australian Paralympian George Tonna, is growing fast, particularly in Sydney and northern England, and it’s giving people with physical disabilities of all ages and both genders the opportunity to chase a dream they never thought would be possible.

For Hills that could mean a trip back home later this year and a clash between his boyhood club, South Sydney, and his adopted Warrington in a curtain raiser to a Rabbitohs NRL game, potentially at ANZ Stadium.

Living a celebrity lifestyle, Hills has access to more dreams than most, but he’s getting just as much joy out of seeing the smiles on his teammates’ and opponents’ faces as they remove themselves from a world where they’re “treated with kid gloves” and go hell for leather at each other.

The Last Leg's Alex Brooker and Adam Hills in Leeds and Warrington jerseys. Source: Supplied

“A lot of people with disabilities get treated with kid gloves — I know this from the Paralympics, the wheelchair rugby guys,” Hills tells foxsports.com.au.

“When they play wheelchair rugby it’s the only time in their life when they can smash into someone or be smashed into and they don’t get people coming over going, ‘are you OK, oh my god, you poor thing’.

“The same goes for us, it’s great. You can run into a tackle, you can really hit someone hard and you can be hit and you don’t get that anywhere else.”

***

THE beauty of Physical Disability Rugby League, or PDRL as it has become known, is it has been created with inclusiveness front and centre.

The custodian of the game, 44-year-old George Tonna, represented Australia in soccer at the Sydney Paralympic Games in 2000 but he was always disappointed that rugby league wasn’t really an option for him — at the grassroots level, nevermind the elite.

So in 2010 he founded PDRL, inventing rules, getting buy-in from administrators and clubs and bringing on board sponsors (most notably Nova Employment).

Tonna has cerebral palsy but when he created the sport he was sure to make it accessible to amputees, victims of stroke, and everything else that limits physical capability but doesn’t put people into a wheelchair.

Each team has nine players and two of them have to be able-bodied, to help guide the team around. Two players wear red shorts, which means they only play touch and the rest are full contact.

The game is played on a slightly narrower field to a regular rugby league field and the able-bodied players can only run 10 metres with the ball, and can’t kick or score.

Certain disabilities give players physical advantages or disadvantages compared with opponents and teammates with different disabilities.

The diverse mix has created a game that can be highly tactical — and ruthless in its execution.

“With an able-bodied team you work out what their weaknesses are and you target those weaknesses,” Hills observes.

“The same goes with a disabled team, you’ve got to go ‘right, that dude’s got cerebral palsy, I

reckon I can outrun him’, you’ve got to be that ruthless.

PDRL has spread to England, with Warrington and Leeds boasting teams. Source: Supplied

“That’s how they’re looking at you, they’re looking at you going, ‘that guy’s got one leg, I don’t think he’s going to be able to kick’, if he gets the ball on the last tackle we’re probably OK.”

At the top end of the sport there is already a small international scene, with Australia and New Zealand leading the way.

The Australian team is coached by ex-NRL player Shaun Spence, who was forced into early retirement due to repeated concussions and now makes his living as Wests Tigers’ Fan Engagement and Community Manager.

Tonna is a co-captain of the side and on Wednesday they’ll board a plane bound for Redcliffe, northeast of Brisbane, to represent their country in the Commonwealth Championships — a big lead-up event to this year’s Commonwealth Games.

The Australian PDRL side is about to embark on the Commonwealth Championships. Source: Supplied

For a guy like Tonna who has already achieved so much in another sport, wearing the green and gold of Australia feels almost run of the mill.

But he hasn’t lost perspective and is old enough to reflect on the changes in society that have made the evolution of this incredible new contact sport possible.

“I went to school in the late 80s and 90s,” Tonna tells foxsports.com.au.

“They had no disabled units in school back in those days. If I fell behind in school it was because I was disabled and they couldn’t teach me individually.

“But it’s been accepted now in the community that there are special needs classes in each school and if you are disabled and you are playing a sport, it’s far more normal.

“I just want to be recognised as a rugby league player.

“I play rugby league, full stop. It doesn’t matter if I’ve got one leg, one arm, two heads, whatever. As long as I’m recognised as a rugby league player, I think everything is well.

“Sport and rugby league is a powerful tool.

“The fact that it doesn’t matter if you’ve got one arm, one leg or you’ve got cerebral palsy you can still get involved in a team sport, where you’re just valued as a person.”

A Rabbitohs player tackles a Warriors ball-carrier in the Auckland Nines. Source: Supplied

***

IT was Tonna who got Spence involved in PDRL after approaching him in a bid to get the Wests Tigers involved in the sport.

Spence took to Tonna and the sport instantly and has since been a driving force at NRL-level, where the Tigers are one of four clubs with their own PDRL team — the Rabbitohs, Sydney Roosters and Manly are the other three. Intrust Super Premiership club Newtown also has its own team that plays in the same competition.

The clubs have different levels of engagement and Spence has been key in ensuring the Wests Tigers’ PDRL team is just another pathway for the club.

They feature on the club’s website, play expo games on the same field in curtain raisers to NRL games, and a player from the PDRL side leads out the club’s NRL team when they run out for kick off.

The Manly Sea Eagles PDRL side. Source: Supplied

For Spence, the whole experience has brought pure joy into his life.

“I do a lot of work out in the community and you can move the world for some people and they still ask what’s next,” Spence told foxsports.com.au.

“These guys, you do one tiny little thing and they’re so appreciative of anything you’ve done. That’s why I wanted to coach them because I did one session with them and then afterwards they all came up and thanked me and then they’re sending me through what they’ve been doing in their off days with their skills and all that.

“They’re just so passionate about the game of rugby league, it’s just phenomenal.

“It’s like when I first got involved, this is what it’s supposed to be about.

“We get so caught up in the pressure of it all and the eliteness of it, whereas these guys take you back to when you first got involved with the game, it’s just awesome.”

Geoff Clark of the Wests Tigers is tackled by a Rabbitohs player. Source: Supplied

Not only does he coach the Wests Tigers and the Australian PDRL team, Spence has taken the sport into schools where he sees a role for the elite players as role models for kids with physical disabilities who are searching for their place in the world.

“You hang around these guys and there’s no worries in life when you think about it,” Spence says.

“When you have a rubbish day at work and then you go and train these guys, you realise you’re going alright, you know. They all love footy so much.

“And we’re taking these guys out to schools as we would NRL players — we have role models like Kevin Naiqama in the NRL team, but these guys should be just as big a role models, they’re playing for the Wests Tigers rugby league team, so it’s good.

Young kids with physical disabilities like Noah Pittas are getting a taste of rugby league. Source: Supplied

“One of the guys is fitter than anyone I’ve seen because he used to be a bodybuilder. His other sport now is he’s a cyclist and he locates the highest climbs in the world, so Tour de France hill climbs, and he’s gone over there and pedalled his way up those.

“He’s just a phenomenal human and one of those people who’s like ‘life throws you a curve ball, so what can you do next to try to get on with life’.

“Another guy was coming through the ranks in the junior development system and all of a sudden has a car accident and gets brain damage and significant physical damage.

“Just to guys like that, this is the highest level they play and we make it feel as close to the NRL as possible.

“Coaching the Australian team is as much about giving them experiences as developing their skills.

“If I can give them good luck messages from high profile athletes from other sports and make them feel like the whole country and the whole NRL’s behind them, that’s just as big as if they end up winning.”

The Newtown Jets PDRL side. Source: Supplied

***

Of all the physically disabled rugby league players who can make an impact, Adam Hills, with his profile, knows he has an opportunity that he shouldn’t waste.

Not only is he actively trying to grow the sport in the north of England, where there are currently two Super League teams — Warrington and Leeds — involved, he is also filming a documentary that could help the sport make a giant leap into the mainstream.

Asked what he was hoping to explore with the documentary, Hills pauses thoughtfully before explaining how it had evolved from a personal journey that would end with him either playing for or against the Rabbitohs into a broader explanation of what sport could do for the physically disabled.

Aussie comedian Adam Hills puts his body on the line for Warrington. Source: Supplied

“First I thought it would be a documentary about me and my dream but every single person who’s playing has got a story,” Hills said.

“The captain of the Leeds team is a guy called Chris Hall. He played a really high level but

was taken out really badly twice in back play in one game and left the field in protest, collapsed when he got off the field, was taken to the hospital and died twice on the operating table.

“He suffered a serious brain injury and never thought he’d play rugby league again.

“He captained the Rhinos and scored the first ever rugby league try (in an English PDRL game) last weekend, mainly because I threw a dodgy pass that he intercepted and ran the length of the field, but nonetheless.

“He posted about it later and I guess the point of the documentary is the ability of sport to change lives.

“It’s about how much disability sport can give to a person. I’m fitter, I’m happier, I can’t stop talking about it, it’s the most fun thing in my life at the moment.

“And I know the other guys feel the same, we can’t wait to turn up to training every Tuesday. I mean I’m taking a two-hour train up to Warrington to train for an hour and then I hop on another train to come back.

“That’s not something you’d do if it wasn’t a source of great joy.”