![Nadine Ison is "really proud" of her son Logan Spinks. Picture supplied Nadine Ison is "really proud" of her son Logan Spinks. Picture supplied](/images/transform/v1/crop/frm/KUhQizDbwW8WqAyPP4x5yp/43301218-4689-453d-9a43-54db7a74e0cf.jpg/r0_0_1438_1785_w1200_h678_fmax.jpg)
For more than a decade, Nadine Ison has beared witness to someone trying to manifest his dream.
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And on a poverty-beset island, where a certain breed of Australian is revered, she witnessed a glorious culmination of that single-mindedness.
When the former Tamworth High student's son, Logan Spinks, took the field for the Australian Schoolboys in their tough win against the Junior Kumuls at Port Moresby's National Football Stadium on Sunday, September 24, she also saw a profound realisation of a success mantra.
"Since he's been five, you'd always ask Logan, 'What do you wanna do when you grow up?'" Ison said. "And his answer was always, 'I wanna be a professional football player'.
"So, it's something that he's wanted for a long time."
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Most if not all of the NRL stars whom Spinks mingled with at Port Moresby before their PM's XIII clash against Papua New Guinea's PM's XIII would have nurtured the same ambition as children. On PNG, they were mobbed as if they were rock stars.
Spinks, 17, will soon sit his HSC exams at Farrer. He will then relocate to Sydney to relink with Canterbury and resume his bid to forge an NRL career. He would know that many talented footballers from this region followed a similar path, but few were chosen.
If the athletic second-rower does not make it, it seems unlikely that a lack of motivation would be the cause.
"He's doing all the hard work," Ison said. "We [his family] obviously do what we can to get him to where he's gotta be and realise his dreams.
![Spinks captained the Farrer First XIII this year. File picture by Mark Bode Spinks captained the Farrer First XIII this year. File picture by Mark Bode](/images/transform/v1/crop/frm/KUhQizDbwW8WqAyPP4x5yp/88548819-8911-4e61-b034-d4c1887bafbd.jpg/r0_0_3543_1776_w1200_h678_fmax.jpg)
"But yeah, he's the one putting in all the hard work. And we're just along for the ride, pretty much."
Naturally, Ison said she was "really proud" of her son. She is especially proud of the man he is becoming.
"I think the biggest thing for me, being his mother, is just to see how humble and grounded he is," she said, adding: "He's already achieved so much so far. And [we] look forward to the rest."
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