The 24-year-old would be making an honest living and harbour no regrets. After all, he never intended to become a professional athlete.
But six years on from that Miller moment, Hazelton finds himself as the Sharks' newest cult hero as he prepares for Saturday's elimination final against the Sydney Roosters.
After playing one game last year, the prop burst back into Cronulla's first-grade side in round seven this season and has missed only two games since.
At 198cm tall and with as much hair as Peter Garrett, Hazelton is far from the prototype of the modern middle forward.
But that's part of what has made him a fast favourite with the Cronulla home crowd.
Little about Hazelton's NRL journey has been typical.
He didn't play his first season of rugby league until he was 15, preferring soccer even while all his mates played footy.
"Even at 16, 17, 18, I'd never really thought of football as a career," Hazelton told AAP.
"I just wanted to have fun and play sport with my mates of a weekend."
But that all changed on a day off from his job for a construction company in the year after he finished school.
At a game of bush footy, Hazelton caught the eye of two-time Dally M medallist Miller, who made a call to Cronulla's then-recruitment manager Grant Jones.
There was a tall fella in Goulburn he needed to meet.
Jones invited Hazelton up to Sydney to trial with the Sharks' under-20 side in a game against Canterbury at Belmore Sportsground.
"It was quiet as, no one really in the crowd except a few parents," Hazelton recalled.
"The kick-off was just this real high, s*** kick-off.
"The half caught it and the defensive line was a metre away from me when I caught the ball, and I got smacked.
"It was like, 'Oh my god, this is not going to go how I expected'."
But Jones and then-under-20s coach Dave Howlett had seen enough to take a chance on Hazelton, who signed a pre-Christmas training contract.
"From that point on, all I wanted to do was be an NRL player," Hazelton said.
Miller, the man who made it all happen, has popped in and out of Hazelton's life since.
He presented the youngster with the award for Cronulla's Jersey Flegg player of the year in 2019.
In round 12 last season, Miller handed over the jersey for Hazelton's first NRL game.
No doubt he will be watching as Hazelton and the Sharks conspire to oust the Roosters from the finals at Shark Park this weekend.
"He always just says how happy he is for me and that he's proud of what I'm doing," Hazelton said.
"I'll never be able to pay him back for what he's done for me."
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