These days, former Knights firebrand Josh Perry minds his temper, and Manly couldn't be happier, writes Andrew Stevenson.

Eight years ago, a big lump of a kid from Newcastle came off the bench against the Warriors and carved a gaping hole in the New Zealand side, running 60 metres with a regulation hit-up from a kick-off.

"I've never had a run like that from the kick-off in my whole career," laughed Knights captain and prop Tony Butterfield at the time. "It's something I've only ever dreamed about and he's done it in his first game in first grade."

Marathon Stadium went wild. It was a bust that reeked of potential and Josh Perry, only 19 but bearing an imposing physique, was immediately hailed as the new Paul Harragon.

Flick forward to 2008 and Perry, 27, was back at Newcastle but under circumstances he never expected. No blue and red - the colours he wore as a standout prop in the Knights' 2001 premiership win. Perry had been shown the F3 and run out of town by new coach Brian Smith. It's round two and Perry's back home as a Sea Eagle. And what does he do?

With four minutes left to play, Perry is goaded by Danny Wicks - effectively his replacement at the Knights - and he unleashes a stupid headbutt. Manly's lead evaporated. Then Perry dropped the ball and the home side won. The chatter was damning.

"After helping the Knights lose game after game in the last seven years with ill-discipline and utter stupidity, it was nice to be on the other end of his poor performance," wrote one Knights fan on a blog. "All Brian [Smith] did was come in and see a fat, dumb, lazy ---- and shafted him like he should have been years ago."

Ouch. But it had more than a grain of truth, as a relaxed and comfortable Perry cheerfully admits. "Teams easily got under my skin and I'd give penalties away or do something stupid," he said.

Manly coach Des Hasler knew that - it was hardly a secret - and told Perry to his face when they first talked the move through. "He told me there were parts of my game I had to clean up," Perry said.

Failure to do so incurs the coach's steely wrath. "He jumps on you pretty hard; he certainly lets you know all about it."

The silly dropped balls, the shoves and the punches seem to be gone now. In their place is the powerful running prop revealed by that first bust. The aggression remains but is released in controlled doses these days.

Perry's aggression has changed in the same way his body has since leaving Newcastle. He's still the same weight, but he's stronger and much fitter than ever before, with his skinfold measurements down from 115 to 88 - from soft to steel. He's still called Teddy - Perry swears it comes from a teenage kid cuddling a girl rather than because he was big and soft - but it's no longer apposite, if it ever was.

Leaving Newcastle was hard for Perry, but not hard on Perry. He now calls it a blessing in disguise. A Newcastle lifer, Perry had looked at the Cowboys three years ago - even his family were trying to give him a nudge - but baulked. The players he had grown up with, Kurt Gidley, Clint Newton and Daniel Abraham among others, were still there. And so was Joey, and while ever Andrew Johns was on the field, a premiership was in the offing.

When Smith's new broom went through the place, Perry went out and nearly over the edge. He was "all over the place" and "a bit lost". Apart from Hasler, there was someone else Perry needed to meet: his life coach Shez Atkins.

Atkins's approach was to ask why Perry wasn't reaching his potential. The answer was in his head. "Shez has basically pulled me apart, had a good look at what makes me tick, and then put me back together again," Perry said.

"I can't begin to tell you how many problems she's solved for me - a lot of them I didn't even know I had."

While Shez and Des sound like a duo you'd meet at a shopping centre with Kath and Kim, they've proved of immeasurable value to Perry. The move helped, too.

"It was a matter of me flicking the switch," he said. "As soon as I got down here, there was a chance to be the person and the player I wanted to be without all the tags I'd had in 'Newie'."

Perry's next problem is what to do about two old men - his opposition front-rowers on Saturday night, Steve Price and Ruben Wiki. With Brent Kite, also 27, at Perry's side, the pair will give away 15 years to the New Zealand hard men. But not a metre of turf. And no stupid penalties.