It's easy to gain a certain impression about the player that is Bernie Ibini. Two diamond earrings book-end his wide smile. Bright red basketball shoes prop-up a confident frame inked in tattoos, gold chains and a broad-faced watch that matches his bold white Chrysler. When he takes on defenders and dribbles through teams, the image seems to fit.

His stride is elegant, his showmanship a drawcard and his fashion more suitable to a night club than a football one. However, that's where the fit ends.

There is no penthouse suite to return to and everyday after training, Ibini parks his Chrysler in front of the house he grew up in Condell Park where he starts his second job as the patriarch of his family. Away from the cameras and the stadium, Ibini takes it upon himself to support his mother and three younger siblings.

Family is the priority of one of Australia's rising stars ever since the sudden and tragic passing of his father Ibi in 2013. There were no warning signs for the Ibini family before disaster struck and news of his father's heart attack hit as Bernie had taken the biggest leap of his career. Living alone in Shanghai, earning a lucrative pay-packet in the ambitious Chinese Super League, he had to put his overseas ambitions on hold to be with the people who mattered most.