Footy great thought he was going to die when he saved teen from drowning in a rip: ‘I’m not going to make it’

Former Manly rugby league player Charlie Haggett has revealed he thought he would drown on the beach after saving a distressed boy fighting for his life in a dangerous rip.

Haggett, a former NSW police commissioner who played at Brookvale for 10 years, was relaxing with his wife at Killick Beach on the NSW mid north coast when he noticed a boy who shouted for help in the waves.

“I thought, ‘Oh shit, I’m going to be one of those statistics where someone goes in to save someone else and ends up dying,'” Haggett said. News Corp..

“I thought I was going to die myself. It was full. Anyone who was there would have done the same thing.

The former football star and several other beachgoers joined in to save the distressed youngster.

“I was trying to figure out where the tear was. I walked out to the sandbar and started calling to him.

“He started shouting, ‘Save me, save me.’

“It looked like he was going to leave, so I jumped in and dragged him across. It was a struggle. He was a big boy. I think he was 14. He was panicked.

“I took him to the sandbar and gave him to another guy who was there. I was exhausted from dragging it through the water, then the bank collapsed beneath me and I was straight back into the rip zone.

“I was trying to find the bottom with my legs but I couldn’t reach it. I longed for the big ones.

“I then thought I was going to die myself. I was fucked. I said to myself, “I’m not going to do that.” The bank was so close, about 60 yards away, but it seemed like miles away.

“The tear was deep and when I fell back in, I fell under the water.” You must realize how powerful the water was.

“It was probably two minutes, but it felt like it was 10 minutes. A guy had a bodyboard and he threw it at me. I was lucky.

Haggett said he was not the only one caught in the rip, with another rescuer finding himself in difficulty during the incident.