IT would have been easy for Dave Tyrrell to walk away from rugby league at any moment.

When the glamorous South Sydney Rabbitohs run out for the NRL grand final with Canterbury, Tyrrell will be the workhorse front rower whose own journey mirrors that of the club itself.

He has fought back from rugby league oblivion, he has reinvented himself and he has done it all on near minimum wage for his entire career. Maybe one day his riches will come.

Surrounded by millionaire superstars like Greg Inglis and Sam Burgess, Tyrrell is the honest toiler that took three years to pay off his car as his teammates bought beachside penthouses.

Tyrrell was 19 in the Bunnies’ under 20s side when his career looked over.

media_camera Rabbitoh Dave Tyrrell with Peter Holmes a Court after signing as an 18-year-old.

He was diagnosed with compartment syndrome in his legs, a painful condition where his muscles swell too big and force constant cramping.

Surgery to cut the sleeve of his calf muscle solved the problem, but ruined his career as a winger.

Immediately he lost two seconds of speed from his 100m sprint time. He’d lost his greatest asset. You could excuse the Rabbitohs if they’d cut him loose, just another 20s kid on the scrapheap.

Tyrrell refused to give up. After a five week recovery he played out the season as a backrower and convinced club owner Russell Crowe that he deserved a NRL contract.

He did it all while waking at 4.30am every day to drive from Mascot to Penrith to start work as an apprentice electrician at 7am and then finish training every night at 8pm.

media_camera Dave Tyrell playing under 8s for Wynnum Manly

“He was a speedy winger and he went back and wasn’t that speedy anymore,” Tyrrell’s dad Kevin said.

“With the compartment syndrome he lost roughly two seconds over 100m.

“He reinvented himself to go back into the forwards. He had to change the way he played football, he had to change his body shape and he had to change everything. But that is part of David’s drive and determination to get to where he wants.”

Even after his NRL debut in 2009 it hasn’t been easy. In 2010 he missed most of the season with a severe facial fracture and he still has the steel plate in his head as a lasting memory.

media_camera After being awarded the Rabbitohs Colt of the Year award.

And he has lasted more than seven years at South Sydney on a wage barely above the absolute minimum for a first grader.

“Put it this way, he is one of the poorest paid players in the NRL,” Tyrrell said.

“It took him three years to pay off a car. Other boys are out buying homes. He is paying off a car and just trying to live in Sydney.

“I don’t think people realise that it’s not easy for him. This is the consistency of Dave, he keeps plodding along, not complaining and doing what he has to do.

“It’s not an easy life. He’s had his face smashed in, he had a cheekbone fracture and has a steel plate in his head … he has had broken arms and the socket broken out of his shoulder. The list goes on and on and on, but he is a tough boy.

media_camera Dave Tyrell crashes over for the Rabbitohs.

“They dropped him for a couple of games and there was a time he wanted to give football away.

“I rang up one of his coaches and said ‘you need to go have a talk to my boy. He is too good to lose to the game.’

“Everyone has self-doubts don’t they. But he has had a good run this year, it’s been his best one.

“When I talk to Dave I tell him you need to run the ball a bit more. He says I just do what I’m told. If I’m told to run it twice I run it twice.

“He is just a man that does what he is told on the field. He doesn’t try to go out of the system and Michael Maguire likes him for that.”