There's a rumour doing the rounds that Jake Friend said something once. He might've even smiled. He has the word economy of Bennett and Benaud, all in one. "No, I don't say much," admits the Roosters captain through a half-curled grin, not a smile.

He doesn't have to say much because there are others who will talk for him. And when they talk they take us back to a cold away dressing-room on a Sunday afternoon at Remondis Stadium in early June.

On the surface, it's just another mongrel mid-season match that probably won't mean much come September. The players are ready. They're about to go out and take on the Sharkies. Friend isn't one for pre-match monologues, but this one is different because it's his 150th for the Roosters. Friend speaks, but it's the tears running down his face that tell the real story.

"We all remember it clearly," says coach Trent Robinson. "He doesn't give away his emotions normally without good reason. He's a staunch Queenslander who says it how it is, without much emotion. He doesn't waste words, there's no grand speeches. On a normal-round game, he expressed what it meant to play 150 games. That just highlighted the path he's been on. He was standing there on his 150th about to lead out the team as captain, and the emotion he had since he was a kid, and the whole life experience since joining the Roosters, it came out on that day. It shows the passion he has. He's not lucky – we're the ones that are lucky."

Jackson Hastings was the youngest player in the room that afternoon, and the speech struck him like a bolt of lightning.

"It hit home for me," the 19-year-old explains. "He told a story about where he's come from, where he's been, how grateful he is … and the tears came streaming down his face."

So what hit home for you?

"It really hit home that you are in control of your own destiny."

For the record, the Roosters lost the match, but they were then undefeated until hitting the Storm in the first week of the finals.

Friend's story of redemption has been told so many times it's a modern-day rugby league cliché. As fundamental as the experience was, we promise not to retrace how he worked in a Surry Hills sandwich shop after the Roosters tore up his contract in late 2009 following a litany of off-field indiscretions before being thrown another lifeline by the club.

"Good," says Friend, expansive as always but seemingly relieved.

But we will touch on the transformation, just for a second, because it serves as a reminder that it doesn't matter how you start a career but how you finish it.

Friend's was a familiar tale: wide-eyed teenager from the coast (Noosa), comes to the big smoke (Sydney), dives into all the delights Sin City has to offer (various nightclubs), gets chewed up (arrested), spat out (sacked by club), and is left wondering where it will all end up (working for the great James Spiropoulos at Cafe Foveaux, making focaccias).

Five years on, Friend has won a premiership, is one victory away from another if the Roosters can get past Brisbane in Friday night's preliminary final at Suncorp Stadium, and is considered the next in line to replace Cameron Smith as Queensland hooker. (He likes talking about that last one as much as the sandwich shop.)

More than that, he is the cornerstone of a culture that has rarely seemed so strong, having been handed the captaincy alongside Mitchell Pearce at the start of the season.

When you put it in those terms, Friend is ready to talk.

"I wonder if I didn't do all that, would I have done it later on?" he reflects. "If I would've learnt all the lessons? Or maybe I would've been a bit more mature and older and pulled my head in anyway. But from where I was, to now … that stuff has been done. I can't take it back anyway. I could only fix the mistakes I had made."

Friend's matured so much – he's only 25, incidentally – he doesn't worry about ever slipping back into old habits of a former life.

"Not really," he continues. "I'm just cruisy. There's always a chance on the beers that I could get out of hand. But the way our team is, and the way I feel about the Roosters, and how hard it was to not be with the club, I am not concerned."

When Friend speaks, he sounds a little bit like Robinson. Certainly not as effusive, but he's similarly calm and thoughtful. Given the coach's influence on other aspects of his game, it doesn't surprise.

"The Roosters are a club that comes into the spotlight off the field," says the coach. "It's had its fair share of stories. There's a lot of temptation around the area, especially for guys in their 20s. We've got one of the youngest squads in the NRL. I walked in but the players were the ones who decided to make a change. I had my ideas, but I couldn't decide for them to make the change. Jake was definitely one of those guys who did."

Five-eighth James Maloney only knew of Friend's past life through the newspapers when he joined the club three years ago. "I didn't know him," laughs Maloney, "but there's a few stories out there, the little ratbag. He's pretty quiet now … until he has a beer, then he becomes a character. He's good value when he's got a couple under his belt."

What Maloney has also noticed is the change in style that's developed in the last year.

Friend expresses himself on the field through tackling anything that moves. He'd tackle Spidercam if required. "I've had to fill in for him [at hooker] a few times, and I don't know how he does it," says backrower Mitch Aubusson.

His toughness was never more evident than last year when he left the ground after a match with a shirt full of broken ribs, before suffering internal bleeding - an ominously named "haemothorax" - later that night. In simple terms, he was two hours away from drowning in his own blood had his girlfriend not called an ambulance.

Friend likes talking about that incident as much as he likes talking about making sandwiches and Cameron Smith. It's written all over his face. It explains how much he doesn't like talking about himself.

But he does wonder about the car wreck of a body that will be left with in retirement. If he's looking for an idea, look at Andrew Johns hobbling around with a dodgy hip on the sidelines at most matches.

"I do worry," Friend says. "We're pretty good at managing stuff. We're getting better with recovery … But, yeah, I am worried about hobbling around when I am 35. I'll worry about that when I retire."

Friend is less about aggression, though. He's becoming an attacking threat with subtly, developing a running game, even a kick when needed.

"I'm using my eyes instead of just going," he says. "I scan around the field now. I know when to run and which way to go. I've learnt that from Robbo."

The manner in which Hastings has effortlessly slotted into the backline in the absence of the injured Pearce can be credited to that new sense of vision.

"He's shown a lot of faith in me," says Hastings. "He could throw the ball to James Maloney, or he could throw the ball to Jackson Hastings. James Maloney has done it all in the game, and the other bloke hasn't done too much. He said if I want the ball he will give it to me. 'Just go out there and back yourself. You wouldn't be here if you weren't a decent player'."

Sometimes, Friend will speak on the field. When he does, they all listen.

"When we concede a try, a lot of players will get caught up in the error that led to the try," says Hastings. "He brings us in tight and says, 'We're the blokes on the field who can change it. That's in the past'. Then he will be the first off the kick-off racing down field to make the first tackle."

These are the small but necessary deeds captains must make if they're to earn respect. Being a Roosters captain, however, comes with added pressure. There is a weight of history, because some of the greatest have led the tricolours since 1908.

There was none better than Arthur Beetson, who was on the Kangaroo tour and about to demolish a plate of eggs and a pound of bacon at the George Hotel in England when he heard that Jack Gibson had been appointed Eastern Suburbs coach. Beetson pushed the bacon to the side, and then returned to Australia to win two consecutive premierships under the supercoach. It was Beetson who signed Friend to the Roosters, instead of allowing him to get sucked into the Broncos system. Oh the irony.

"Arthur was the one that spotted me and got me to the Roosters," Friend says. "The way he played, he led by example. He was going to be the one who made it happen, and then went and did it. I'll say it if I feel it needs to be said. I'll leave it at the minimal amount of words. I'd rather lead with actions."