Tim Lafai is one of the biggest and best players in Super League at the moment.

But he has done it tough throughout his career to get to where he is right now.

This has prompted him to say that fans should give players an easier ride and shouldn’t judge them on their form because you don’t know what’s going on behind the scenes.

“Fans only see what they see on the rugby pitch. If a player has a bad game, that’s all they see but they don’t know what’s caused that player to lead into a bad game,” he said on the Out of Your League podcast.

“There could be stuff happening off the field, he could be carrying a niggling injury. There’s so much to it that fans don’t know.

“I think it’s important that they know we don’t just wake up one game and be like, I feel like playing shit today. That’s never in our mind, to go out there and perform bad for them. There’s a lot of stuff that goes into a player’s prep each week.

“In my head my mind says there’s more to life than rugby. And that’s something my brother’s always told me. He’s been a great mentor for me throughout my career. He always told me, rugby doesn’t run your life. There’s more to life than rugby.

“That’s very true, because when I had a year off to work in construction, those blokes don’t even care about rugby life. There’s blokes in there who care about their construction business and getting buildings, you walk past them and they don’t even know who you are.

“They’re happy with life. And it just shows there’s a good reality check that rugby doesn’t run your life. There’s other things going on that people care about so they stop thinking that people care about us. People who don’t even matter.

“So now if I have a bad game or if we lose, the first thing I think is just my kids and wife. Kids are the best thing ever. They don’t judge you for how you play at all. They’re just happy that dad’s alright and dad’s home.

“They see you walking that door, they don’t know how bad you played or if you lost or if you had a great game, they’ll treat you the same. That’s a great reality check for me. “