Now the aspiring rugby league talent is well on his way after just signing a deal to play first grade with the Parramatta Eels. 

For the past 12 months Brenton has been working at Abermain Public School as a support officer and student mentor while also playing in the reserve grade for the Newcastle Knights.

It was during a training session in 2012 that he was first approached about applying for the Norta Norta Aboriginal student mentoring program, which is how he first came to be at Abermain Public School. 

However he soon made such an impression at the school that principal Len Boughton said it was an easy decision to keep him on in a permanent position. 

“He made such an instant connection with some of our kids,” he said.

“He has made a huge difference to all the kids that he has worked with and definitely enhanced our student welfare.

“A lot of our boys here don’t have strong male role models in their lives, so Brenton has definitely had a role to play within the school.”

Growing up in the Northern Territory, Brenton said that he overcome a lot of adversity to be where he is today with sport always providing the outlet he needed to pursue his dreams. 

“I was just shy of 18 when my sporting career really began taking off,” he said.

“It was really only two years before that when I first started playing.

“I came from a poor family and we always struggled growing up. We never really had a house, we just moved from place to place.

“I was never any good at much else so I always knew that sport would be the best avenue for me to follow my dreams.

“I was just lucky that rugby league came to me.”

Since mentoring at Abermain, Brenton said that the school has become like his second family and he definitely has mixed emotions about leaving. 

“Everyone here has just welcomed me with open arms,” he said.

“Being so far away from my family does get difficult.

“I promised the kids that the first time I score a try for the Eels I will make the Abermain ‘A’ sign with my hands.

“I just hope that in my time here I have been able to inspire them in some way or another.”