HIS career with the Newcastle Knights ended in disgrace, and is remembered more for alcohol-fuelled violence than anything he achieved during his 29 games in the blue and red.
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But on Sunday Zane Tetevano has a chance to join illustrious company by winning consecutive grand finals with Sydney Roosters.
Whether Tetevano is a redemption story, or merely the luckiest man in rugby league, depends on your point of view.
But suffice to say that when he emerged from Newcastle District Court four years ago, having successfully appealed against the severity of an 18-month jail term imposed on him for repeatedly assaulting a former girlfriend, it appeared even the New Zealand-born forward accepted he was unlikely to ever play in the NRL again.
"I miss footy, don't get me wrong,'' he told the Newcastle Herald's Sam Rigney outside court. ''I just don't want to be a part of it really."
Moreover his barrister, Julieanne Levick, told Magistrate Ian Cheetham: "He has no desire to return to the toxic environment that the NRL invites."
Most assumed he would never get the chance.
Sacked by the Knights when he was convicted and fined $440 for punching and breaking a taxi window, Tetevano was back in court soon afterwards, pleading guilty to eight charges, including two counts each of common assault and assault occasioning actual bodily harm, after incidents involving his former girlfriend.
The 113-kilogram prop admitted grabbing the victim's singlet around her neck and throwing her across a room, punching, kicking and verbally abusing her, as well as smashing her phone and damaging her car.
Yet less than a year after having his jail sentence overturned, Tetevano was back playing for the Roosters' NSW Cup feeder team, Wyong Roos.
And after completing a two-year period of de-registration and a variety of compulsory NRL educational courses, in particular relating to alcohol and respect for women, Tetevano returned to the NRL in round two of the 2017 season.
He has since been a regular on the Roosters' bench, appearing in 73 top-grade games over the past three seasons.
Like Russell Packer and Matthew Lodge, Tetevano has apparently turned his life around, but he should feel relieved that his offences occurred before the NRL's "zero tolerance" policies for players who mistreat women were set in stone.
The great unknown is how Tetevano's career might have unfolded had he been a model citizen off the field.
Having arrived at the Knights in 2008 as a teenager from from Tokoroa, in New Zealand's Waikato region, he had spent six years serving his apprenticeship.
Getting sacked potentially spared him from featuring in Newcastle's three wooden spoon seasons. Now he is 80 minutes from a second successive premiership.
It's a remarkable story, although perhaps not quite a grand final fairytale.
