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Trent Robinson puts Terrell May’s rapid rise as one of the NRL’s form front-rowers – and most in-demand – down to 15 lost kilos.
Turns out Robinson only knows the half of it – literally.
May, who could secure a two-year extension from the Tricolours as early as next week amid interest from the Dragons and a watching brief held by Canterbury, has started the season as the Roosters’ best forward, four years after quitting the game during the first 2020 COVID-19 lockdown.
Then 20, May had walked away from a $1000-a-week Wests Tigers train-and-trial deal ready to give up on rugby league, “not because I didn’t like the Tigers, I just didn’t want to train, didn’t want to be there.”
May’s weight ballooned above 135 kilos as elder brother Tyrone featured in Penrith’s 2020 grand final and younger sibling Taylan rose through the Panthers ranks. Both questioned why Terrell was wasting his obvious talent.
By the time Tyrone and Taylan flew to Queensland as part of Penrith’s 2021 COVID-19 bubble, Terrell had slimmed back down and found his way back to the game with Manly’s feeder club, Blacktown Workers. Which is when he “went a bit loopy and was running 20 kilometres a day”.
A slimmed down Terrell May in action for Blacktown Workers in 2021.Credit: NRL Photos
“I was sitting at home. Tiny and Tyrone went up into the bubble… obviously I couldn’t work because of COVID, so I would just lie around at home, and I came across this YouTube video by (retired US Navy SEAL and ultramarathon runner) David Goggins,” May told the Bloke in a Bar podcast recently.
Which is how May and a few mates, including Izack Tago’s brother, Jake, ended up completing a version of Goggins’ 4x4x48 challenge, which sees participants running four miles every four hours across two days.