I will never forget the waiting. I will never forget THAT call. In fact, there are so many things I will never forget about that day.

My family screaming with joy. My tears. Orry (my Agent Chris Orr) on the phone for hours.

The past 72 hours have been a blur, but as I make my way to Philadelphia, and hopefully a contract with the reigning Super Bowl champions, I keep thinking back to that day and the moment when I was drafted into the NFL.

It has been an amazing time and even as I recount it, I have to shake my head and ask: “Is this really happening to me?”

So, the NFL draft was held a few days ago in Dallas, but I didn’t go there with any expectations. That, in a way, made it easier. Keep the expectations low and that way you don’t get too disappointed.

That was easier said than done. I attended the draft with Orry and a couple of friends and we were ushered into ‘the NFL greeting room’ inside the Cowboys Stadium.

And there we stayed for hour after hour. In fact about five or six hours. While you are in the greeting room you don’t hear anything about what is going on.

And that is when I started to get nervous. Also, I began getting calls, from clubs asking for Orry’s phone number. I started to think they were prank calls … a gee-up. By now there had been more than 200 draft picks and there were only about 30 to go … and so far nothing.

But then came a text from the Eagles basically saying: ‘Stay by your phone!’ That’s when I started to get really nervous. I waited. And waited. Then my phone lit up with the Philly tag. I answered … and I was told I had been drafted by the Philadelphia Eagles!

The tears flowed. That wasn’t just because my dream had come true, but it was also the culmination of a very stressful day.

As I sat there waiting, Orry was never off the phone.

Clubs were contacting him wanting to set up deals after the draft, with me as a free agent. But Orry was having nothing of that. “You want him. You draft him!” I heard him say several times.

So when that call did come through from the Eagles it was a very special moment.

I was so glad that Orry was there with me, and Nate Myles, the former NRL player, who is a former client and close friend of Orry’s was there as a mentor role for me on this trip.

Also there was my mate Christian, who was also part of the NFL’s International Player Pathways Program and has been training alongside me for the past five months. My family couldn’t be with me, but Christian is like family. So having have him there sharing the moment was great.

I also think back, way before Dallas, to when I was faced with what has been the most important decision of my life so far: Do I sacrifice what I have known all my life (rugby league) and gamble on a sport that was foreign to me. I am still very young (21) and I also could see what a great opportunity this was.

So I made the decision to give it my all. My family were initially sceptical for the very same reasons as I had already battled through – giving up something you know for something you know very little about.

That’s what made it so special when, as soon as I found out I had been drafted, I contacted my siblings through a Facebook group video. When they first saw me I was crying and they were like: ‘What’s wrong! What’s wrong!’

(In the room where I had been waiting there were 32 caps, one for each of the NFL clubs. If you were drafted, then you were to put on the appropriate cap and walk onto stage.)

So as I began talking to my family, I put on the Eagles cap and they just started screaming.

I couldn’t talk for long because that’s when I had to walk out on stage. My family were able to watch me do that.

Later, back at my hotel, I called them back and they just couldn’t believe that I had been drafted. I simply said: “Well believe it, because it is happening.”

So, the unbelievable has happened. I have been drafted into the NFL with the Philadelphia Eagles.

As I close one door and another opens, I know what is ahead of me. I know where I need to get to and I know what I have to do. The challenge is scary, overwhelming. But I also know the Eagles chose me for a reason. They have taken a gamble and I am so happy that they did.

I am now totally focused on what I need to do. There are a lot of people who deserve thanks for where I am right now and the best way I can do that is to work even harder and earn a contract in the NFL.