Cameron chased an NRL career but found love instead. He's one lucky man

When Rodgers and his wife, Alex, whom he met at university in Sydney while signed with Cronulla, close their Moree business Synergy Physiotherapy each day and then absorb their baby daughter's untainted love, he must on occasion feel like the luckiest man alive.

Fourteen years after the 31-year-old left his hometown of Moree to link with the Sharks, and eight years after he obtained his physiotherapy degree, he overlooks a life teeming with special meaning.

"It's a pretty expensive world down there [Sydney], so we thought we'd come back up this way. I've got family up here," the Moree Boars utility said.

"We thought we'd give it a crack for a while and set up a business - and here we are, years later. It's going well. We're quite happy here, which is good."

Rodgers moved to Sydney when he graduated from Farrer in 2010. Used chiefly at hooker, he spent two seasons playing under-20s for Cronulla before tasting NSW Cup action in his third and final year at the club.

"I'm glad I had the opportunity to try and have a crack at it down there," he said. "It's an eye-opener. It's a tough world. Just happy that I was able to feature in a few of the games down there."

He went on: "I thought I put my best foot forward with everything. And if it was gonna be, it was gonna be. If not, at least I knew I gave it my all."

Rodgers met and started dating Alex when they were both doing a sport and exercise science degree at Western Sydney University.

He would go on to study physiotherapy at Charles Sturt University in Orange, while she studied physiotherapy at the University of Sydney.

"We'd been together a few years by then," he said. "I was still living in Sydney when I went to Orange. I only had to go out there a day or two a week, and did the commute sort of thing."

In January 2018, the couple opened Synergy Physiotherapy. The following year, they wed.

"We're pretty aligned in the same way," Rodgers said of his relationship with Alex. "So we operate quite nicely together most days, which is good."

Earlier this year, little Aria entered the couple's world. She was, Rodgers said, "a good little baby" and a sound sleeper.

"So it makes our job pretty easy," this very lucky man said.