Erin Clark in action for the Junior Warriors during his stint at the Mt Smart Stadium-based club. Photo / Dean Purcell
Promising Kiwi league player Erin Clark - the son of Silver Ferns netball legend Temepara Bailey - has revealed signing with the Gold Coast Titans has "kind of saved my life".
Clark last year signed what he hopes will be a life and career-changing deal with the Robina-based club; three years on from earlier playing his one and only first-grade match for the New Zealand Warriors.
Within two months of his debut, the 23-year-old asked for a release from his Warriors contract and signed with the Canberra Raiders. But it was a short-lived stint in the Australian capital, successfully gaining a release from that contract to return to his family's base in Auckland.
His league aspirations were put on ice after his return.
Talking to the Gold Coast Bulletin as the Titans ramp up their 2021 NRL pre-season campaign, the halfback/hooker said nailing another chance at first-grade football at a third club had been a blessing.
"It kind of saved my life," he said.
"I wasn't happy when I was away from footy. When I came back I realised this is what I was here to do.
"I'm not where I want to be yet and I've still got a long way to go but I'm happy with the steps I'm taking to give my son and my daughter a good life."
Clark was a star of the 2015 Junior Warriors team.
He went on to play two tests for Samoa in 2016, then debuted for the Junior Kiwis two months after making his Warriors first-grade debut.
Clark played at standoff for much of his junior career. But he was forced to concentrate on hooker at the Warriors due to Shaun Johnson's hold on the halfback jersey.
He told the Gold Coast Bulletin that while at Canberra he had fallen out of love with league, and doubled with missing his young family, decided he needed to return home.
"Being so young, coming out of school and straight into an NRL system was like I'd missed out on being a kid," Clark said.
"My partner was pregnant with my son back home and everything just fell down.
"I wanted to be around my son so I went home."
He hung up his footy boots and got a job as a labourer for a landscape gardening company.
More than 12 months later he decided that he should give footy one last crack.
"A real changing moment was I was lying on my bed with my son, who was still really young," he said.
"When I was looking at him I knew I had to give him something.
"I know there's something more for me and I want to give you a good life."
He was eventually offered a contract to train and trail at the Gold Coast Titans during the 2020 pre-season, but the club emphasised there was no promise of a fulltime deal. And club management stressed he has to lose 20kg before he even fronted up.
He impressed so much on his arrival that he was offered the new-year contract within two months.
Clark made 10 first-grade appearances for the Titans last year.
Ahead of the kick-off of the 2021 NRL, he said he knew there was a lot more improvement left in his game.
"The No 9 has to be the fittest player on the field now, especially with the new rules," he said.
"It's a tough role because you've got to be more fit, more mobile, but that's what I've been working on this pre-season and I'm trying my best."
Clark's mother is widely regarded as one of the greatest players to play for the Silver Ferns.
She played in 89 internationals for the Silver Ferns between 1996-2011.
During that time she won two Commonwealth Games gold medals, as well as being a member of the World Netball Championships-winning team in 2003.