Tory Brunning's uncle Toshi said it best – "rugby league is a family.”
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Hundreds of mourners, the bulk dressed in the blue and canary yellow of the Dapto football club, proved that fact at Dapto Leagues Club on Friday, as the league community gathered to farewell "Torz.”
The 22-year-old’s life was tragically cut short last Saturday when he collapsed after scoring two tries for his beloved Canaries against Wests at Dapto Showground.
The Devils contingent at the memorial service was sizeable with members of all Illawarra League clubs present, including Collegians who will play against Dapto on Sunday.
Former classmates, including current NRL players Euan Aitken and Jackson Hastings, attended in Illawarra Sports High School garb.
“I know at home, the rugby league community is more like a family,” Toshi Brunning told the gathering.
“Being here the last few days it's very easy to see it's exactly the same here. It's easy to see you are a family.
“Rugby league brings people together. There's no doubt it's the best game in the world.
“We've got people here from opposing clubs and that's what rugby league does.
“You can go out there and bash each other on the field, and then have a beer together… best game in the world.”
It was only natural that talk would turn to the game that was Brunning's great love – a love that saw him leave his hometown of Waitara, New Zealand to chase his rugby league dream nine years ago.
On arriving in the Illawarra as a 13-year-old he was fostered by the Glackin family, with Joanne Glackin recalling a "daring” 13-year-old who “promised to be a good boy” and proved so much more.
A boy who was initially “a tough nut to crack” but a nut that proved “soft-centred”.
Brunning's partner Zoe Scalco described her childhood sweetheart as "gentle, loyal, adventurous, humble and intelligent beyond measure.”
Childhood friend Patrick Tai, who first played alongside Brunning for the Waitara Bears as a five-year-old, remembered his former "tag-team” partner, not as a mate, but a "brother” before leading his Maori brothers in an emotional farewell haka.
It was a fitting send-off with plans to send Brunning back to Waitara to be finally laid to rest.