hey guys welcome back to ebbs and flows where we talk about the highs and lows on and off the field
hard to get roosters boys in here but thanks for coming through bro oh good brah thanks for having
me eh first and foremost to roma congrats on your new contract what does that mean for you and your
family uh thanks bro um nah it just means so much to me and my family eh like growing up i never
thought i would be at roosters or nrl player and my family seeing me happy there and re-signing
obviously make them proud and yeah i'm just thankful and grateful to be there for another
two years so yeah what's that um contract negotiation part like because obviously when
your roosters want you they normally get their guy were you sort of peeking around other places
or you just happy to stay at the roosters or what no i wasn't peeking around other places i was just
obviously trying to sort out that brother contract and then for me i never really wanted to leave so
for me i was always trying to get the two bros to come over but obviously that didn't happen and
the only other option i could have had was to go back to permaf but there wasn't really a
contract there for me to go back to so yeah i wanted to stay at roosters and
really i want to be a one club man to be honest so roosters looks like the team yeah um obviously
you got some pretty good guys as like leaders with jared and lindsey there what do you learn
from guys like that because roosters they're always low-key like they're always they're hard
to get on podcasts they don't do too much media besides cheese cheeses everywhere but what's it
been uh behind someone like jared and lindsey obviously you look up to those kind of guys
jared obviously been one of the top tier front rows for 15 years so yeah and then lindsey's coming
to his own right now but yeah it's more the off-field stuff you look into like how disciplined
and nice those blokes are and how they go about themselves off the field but then on the field
they're just beasts bro like you just you want to play with those kind of guys week in week out so
yeah it's just crazy like i get to play with him eh yeah
um jared was running off the field on the weekend and the mic picked up him saying something to you
boys as you guys come on what type of stuff does he say to you nah it's just always like encouraging
stuff eh he'll be like come on g let's let's go that's us like it's always encouraging if he's
not encouraging he's brain you so yeah it's one or the other but yeah he's a he's a good dude
jared bro i love him and he's like a big dad for all of us boys at the roosters yeah um i think
it's important to have like um there's a lot of islanders and moldys within the game now
and i think it's important to have that senior guy who can relate to moldy or islander boys and
i remember we were a bit younger we had reuben and manu that we could look up to at the time
but i think they just sort of understand the islander boys a little bit better don't they
yeah no 100 um we always say that jared's like our leader for the islander boys and the moldys
you know like he's done so much for the pacific islanders and moldy's in this game like we look
up to him and we want to learn off him and take that down to the next generation yeah so
how do you feel about your game obviously you've come in and you're the hot topic right now
everyone's talking about origin everyone's obviously just resigned with one of the biggest
clubs in the game how do you feel like your game's progressing because you play a different style to
jared and lindsay you can got that nice little tip on you move a little bit differently how do you
feel like that's developing i feel like my development um development from this year
including last year i just feel like i've came in with a confidence that's
been different like obviously first coming into and i roll you you're a bit like
shy and you don't really want to do too much but i feel like off the back of
last year i feel like my confidence has grown heaps this year and i'm just going out and doing
my thing now and i feel like all the boys trust me so i'm very confident and just happy to be
playing the way i am are you looking to get that starting position when jared leaves is that the
goal that's the goal 100 like i don't want to beat around the bush i don't i like coming off
the bench but to start week in week out that's a goal for mine so obviously spencer coming back
to be a battle and oh yeah we've got a good little um competition going there but
obviously everyone wants to start so yeah bro white's strong as too isn't he yeah white's
a beast bro like he's still young he's only like 21 so once he comes to his age well he's gonna
be a beast he's already a beast but yo he's gonna be a proper beast um bro what's it like trent
robinson obviously widely regarded as one of the best coaches in the game and uh i've had a chance
to meet him one time and intellectually from a football standpoint i've never met someone who
was as smart as him what's it like being in in conversations with him and being one of his players
nah trent's a really good um communicator not just like for the on-field stuff but off-field like he's
really every day he's asked for how's your family how's the little one how's this like it's always
about family it's never really on field but then he has a switch to like go on field and then well
like i i know footy pretty well so he knows that and then he'll just talk to me about what i need
to work on and what i've been doing good so i'll just take that into consideration and i'll go out
and do what he wants me to do so yeah 100 percent um i always ask the bruce's boys this and i've
asked cheese and everyone what do you think and i know you haven't been there all the time like
what do you think the roosters never start as well as they should like i look at your team every week
you guys are stacked from one to almost 23. is there anything behind the scenes
that you've noticed that why why the team starts a bit pretty slow not really behind the scenes
it's more like just the clicking like i feel like we take a while to click together but then once
we're on we're like oh yeah but no nothing like we're always this year especially with simon jones
coming in like we've gotten fitter stronger like we've we should be starting fast but i don't know
what's going on to be free and free with our kind of team it's a bit disappointing but i feel like
it's not how you start how you finish so yeah bro obviously you grew up out west um john tell us
some stories of what it's like to grow up out west we're pretty crazy at the moment in bondi with
um stabbings but you go out west i wouldn't say it's normal but it's a it's a rougher way of life
do you want to talk about growing up out west and could you have gone either way could you
ended up in a bit more trouble when you guys took the football path do you want to talk about that
yeah no growing up west there was um for me it's normal but for other people they look into it they
think it's real bad and that but yeah growing up um yeah my dad and mom were always like strict on
us so we kind of really couldn't hang around people meant to be hanging around but yeah like
growing up it's either like our west we see it as you either go in jail football or just
the work life there's nothing like in between there's no like business man like like doing
the right businesses but yeah i feel like our west is very different to our hit out these
like we grow up different like even for me like i grew up like not eating dinner like seven times
a week it's like me and my brothers would fight over eating dinner like my family working long
hours like and then like taking us the foodie and that and then like trying to keep us off the
streets because our west every kid's on the street and everyone's like following the older boys and
the older boys ain't really doing too good so they're trying to be better yeah a lot of my
mates right now in jail or some of them dead so i'm just glad my parents took us away from our
life and led us into this path so yeah um do you feel like you guys can influence the next
generation coming through because maybe growing up in those early days they didn't have people to
look up to you know and they've got you guys now they've got panthers who are three times champions
you know chicken does it do you feel like that's a part of your journey yeah 100 like a lot of boys
now out west like look up to the premier boys and some of the boys out west so looking up to
footy players it's kind of good like the boys are doing something different and i know a lot
of the boys are like starting clinics and you know doing all this little stuff on the side to keep
the kids off the street so that's one thing i want to look into because i don't want kids ending up
in jail and i want them to chase their dreams or if they're not chasing their dreams just be a good
person but i'm not saying the boys leading the other ways are bad people that's the
life they chose so yeah even like um like i'm old but i look at guys like when one four and that
were coming through you could see how it would be appealing to like a young kid coming through and
seeing their lifestyle and all the motorbikes and all the film clips and the rapping you can see how
they can fall into that yeah no 100 like the one four boys are doing well and i'm i'm proud to call
them from manjua but i just feel like there's there's young kids looking up to that stuff and
thinking like that's the whole point of the life they chose so yeah even like i'm old but i look at
high life but i know everything you see on social media is like real so that's how i take it like
people see like the money the chains and all that but that's not real bro like that's just something
you want to get into you get into that but if you want to live like a happy life you you do
what you want to do so yeah that's how i see it so we look at you now obviously talking about
origin and just resign with the roosters but your path to nrl wasn't always as smooth as
people would suggest or think do you want to talk about those earlier days coming through like the
system and getting left out do you want to talk about that because i think that's super inspiring
yeah no 100 like growing up me and my brothers barely made rep teams they especially me like
the first time i actually played in a rep team was under 20s my own age at pemriff so yeah i got left
out of a lot of teams but for me i didn't really like know like what to what to think about it
i thought like oh bro i'm so trash like how can i not make this team i'm never gonna make nrl
but growing up you realize like a lot of those boys that you thought were gonna make nrl
like never make nrl so for me like i think hard work's the most important thing like and never
giving up because that was my persona of coming into the nrl i never gave up and i made my debut
when i was 23 so that's pretty old like compared to most guys but now like see it as
i'm grateful to actually play in nrl and yeah how close were you to giving up bro i gave up
multiple times i think i was 19 gave up 17 gave up yeah a lot of times i gave up so what made you
keep coming back obviously the brothers like they always said i was so talented and um i was wasting
my time like giving up like i just gotta start training hard and that and then when tiny made
you i was just so motivated like i was like bro i'm so proud but how could a younger brother like
play in a role before you that's like embarrassing yeah so like oh is that how you felt yeah like
yeah i was just like i was so like happy for him and that but i felt embarrassed like
within myself like how could a guy younger than you debut before you and then obviously
tyrone was already playing in our role so then i feel like left out like oh i'm the only one
that hasn't played in our role like that's that's embarrassing for you and your family like everyone
would be the first one to play and then like seeing him debut and play i was just like bro
so happy and proud like i'm gonna do it for him yeah tiny's was a big motivation for me
to be honest like if he didn't play in a row i wouldn't even like come back to be honest
oh really at all yeah that's crazy yeah um obviously like he come in and killed it too
what was that like how did you get yourself back into it were you doing extra training on your own
and you boys are big into bars talking to tags and tiny the other other week and they're into
like carnivore they're into all these different things and i look at you and i look at your
brother you like it's easy to judge you by the way that you guys look and your older brother as well
but you guys think differently you move differently like where's that mindset come from bro
no i just think my daddy he's always had a strong mindset he's been so strict on us since we were
young like he's always pushed us to push our limits so yeah it's definitely my dad like it's
been a big inspiration
for me and my family so yeah seeing him like he would make us run hills since we were young
make us eat right if we didn't eat right we'll get you know get a hiding if we didn't play good
we're getting a hiding like the boys used to be so scared of my dad like yeah bro they used to
watch us like get hidings and he's white too so like what the hell is this white dude bashing
these islander boys for like but yeah my dad's the biggest inspiration for me especially because
like if i didn't have him in my life i'll probably be in gangs and that and
stuff i shouldn't be doing so it's crazy to think about like especially when you live out there like
how close like the gang life and football like you know i mean like not not people out east don't
have that yeah that mentality you know it's scary 100 yeah um bro so your brother i'm super
impressed with who he is as a person but he's just got into the vlogging i see you've been a part of
twitch what do you think about your moves now you're settled now you know what you're doing
on the football field you got your contract sorted how are you going to start moving because i feel
cool yeah no 100 um i wanted to move like tiny a little bit but different he's doing the vlogs i
want to do the gaming like side of it because i've always been a good gamer growing up i just
want to showcase my talent and that so i'm going to try to start streaming at the end of this year
once i get my setup and then i'll start like doing little vlogs as well and then i also want to get
into podcasting like this and just talk about how i grew up and decide obviously you can choose one
of the different ways you want to go this way so yeah i want to inspire young kids to choose the
right path would you interview like people that have gone down the wrong path as well yeah 100
i got a lot of boys that recently just got out or boys that are doing music i've got a lot of
mates doing different stuff but it will just be hard like because like i know some of them won't
want to get on in that yeah fair enough hey but like i find that stuff so interesting especially
when they've been inside and they start talking about all their different scenarios and experiences
i find that stuff super interesting
100 um it's pretty interesting like the way like i can just hang around people like that
and like think it's normal that's your boys yeah those are my boys but people from the outside will
think oh these guys are this that like but people just see what they see on social media they don't
see the person that they are that's why i think social media is so fake like for me that's why
i'm barely on it but obviously if i want to make a generation of wealth i gotta start becoming that
guy so yeah bro i love that um so i think obviously you're looking into a lot of games
and know gamers and stuff bro there's heaps of like keep some money in that too if you can nail it
and then i know a few your boys and the roosters play the gaming of joey and all that no i don't
really game with those boys i game with my my cousins they really like i play with my family
my brothers but yeah my little cousin is like one of the best in oz at the moment in cod so yeah
he's got a like little land tournament in a couple weeks so cool try to support that but
yeah it was always me and him growing up like we're always very good at games and yeah we've both
played a bit of pro like in the oz scene but yeah he's taking so you played as well yeah oh so you're
like you're good yeah yeah like i'm like pretty like up there like if you ask like jerome and that
like those boys they'll they'll tell you like how why i gave up footy and just because of that stuff
oh i just love gaming too much yeah bro i was just like ridiculous like 18 hours a day oh yeah like
bro it's crazy like how much i've changed my life and that yeah still would still feel like you can
on the sticks anytime oh yeah i'll play i'll play a little bit now i've been playing a little bit
with my cousin just trying to get back in the scene but i'm not going to be as good you need
to actually put time in it's like a full-time job i got to meet um like you know laser beam you know
those guys yeah oh did you get to meet him yeah like his um his management system her name's grace
they used to look after all those mr music music or all those guys and i went to their office bro
and they all got a space like this with the gaming setup in there yeah and those boys are making bank
unbelievable bro he's he's a millionaire bro yeah yeah he's crazy he like hangs around like
ksi and all that like mr b oh he's been on mr b yeah he knows mr beast too it's crazy like he's
just knock about dude from granada too which is yeah that's crazy he even got that skin on fortnite
too the training skin yeah because i was talking to his manager around that time and she was sort
of breaking down all the deals and stuff i was just going far crazy money in there bro um obviously
samoa as well what was that like that's crazy yeah because like to be honest i didn't even think
i was going to make nrl and then to play international i was like it was like surreal
for me i was like why am i really putting this jersey on right now and obviously my
my grandparents have passed but i was just like doing the anthem i was just thinking about them
so much and how proud they would have been to see me making my family proud and yeah because
i grew up with my samoa inside as you've seen me come in with my cousin you know my cousin
is a bit black so yeah a lot of my cider i hang around a dark so yeah yeah so someone big part
of your culture growing up did you look were you doing everything from day dot yeah 100 like growing
up i used to live with my granddad when i was young so yeah i always knew the island away but
right now i'm a bit plastic so i love i love going back into camp and getting back into the culture
talking to all the boys i feel like everyone there's like we're all like brothers they like
oh it wasn't one person i couldn't hang around like just on the side of the island i couldn't hang around
the ones like and just meeting them too oh yeah it's like it was good to see that and then good
to see all the plastic voices funny as that's bro it's hard it's hard to explain culture to
like a lot of people like you look at the roosters culture and you guys are built on
trying to win premierships and stuff like that but like actual culture when you go into it and
you just feel like you belong you can't it's hard to explain a yeah just the average person
by 100 it was like so weird i felt like the first day i walked in it was like bro these are all my
like i don't know like it was just different like especially islanders we're so proud of our
culture and we're so tight and family's a big part so we all took it as like one like we're all family
and then obviously we didn't get the best results but it was the best time so so happy to be a part
of that day i feel like you guys can win the world cup wow i feel the same especially this year oh
like our team this year or if everyone plays yeah if everyone plays that's a big one if everyone plays
all right here's the next question for you if you got to pick between samoa and australia one day
where would you go to be honest i would i would say australia because i grew up here and my dad's
four was he but the only situation that would take me away from playing from australia and
someone is if one of the brothers like couldn't make australia or like like vice versa yeah
if they were playing for saar i would go to saar but yeah if
yeah that's a sticky
situation hey because i grew up here my whole life and that but i'm like more so i feel like
i'm more someone like i grew up with my islander family my whole life like i still see them every
single day and i was so close to my grandparents like so yeah i just my family from the simon side
is just like my yeah it's my family bro both pretty good options bro yeah that's what i mean
i can play for um new zealand as well oh sick yeah come on come on
but yeah just because my mom was born there so i don't really have an affiliation there yeah yeah
um bro i look at the samorin like bro the amount of props that are actually someone heritage
like do you look at tino you look at june you look at everyone but you guys are just stacked at the
moment yeah it's scary bro it's actually scary it'd be interesting if roger comes over as well
yeah hopefully bro like if those other boys come back i'll probably have to like play for china or
to another team it is that oh bro what'd you learn from your older brother like i i talked
to him a little bit on instagram and i feel like he's going through like a bit of a spiritual
journey you know he had his troubles in the past so where he got um in trouble i talked to him now
and he feels like he's a different person and i watch how he posts and all that um philosophical
stuff now what have you learned from him nah i've learned so much from my older brother like
the route he was on like we weren't really close and as a as a teenager but like
as he got older i feel like he's matured up and he doesn't care what people think about him now
which is like inspiring because he was going through so much when he was down here and now
seeing our happy years and not caring what people think like that inspires me bro like
because i feel like i've always told like my family like social media is fake and don't don't
worry about what people are saying like because no one's gonna come up to you and be like oh bro like
well you think you're tough like no one in real life's gonna do that especially like i've never
like maybe to you no i've never seen like someone like come up to my me and my family and be like
you're this like or any of the boys so i just think like let them talk on social media like
why are you wasting your time looking into that stuff i don't really look into that stuff to be
honest i don't really care what someone's gonna say about me and that's what like inspired me about
my brother he didn't really care like about obviously it's gonna affect you like the amount
of messages you get and that like from people but for him to like look past that and what he's doing
now yeah it's so inspiring
and well i wish the best for him to be honest can you see him coming back to the nrl
100 bro he's got the talent and skill and knowledge to come back but it's just whether
club give him a chance because i know he can do it like what he's doing in super league right now
he's killing it and i just know once he plays with confidence he's like one of the best players i've
seen to be honest yeah um i think that like 14 position now in rugby league especially here
was like one of the most important ones and he can cover he can cover a lot of positions from nine
probably all the way out to outside center you know he can play back row he could play 13 play
any other half so i think it'd be a great pickup for someone yeah no 100 i feel like he started
that role to be honest there was no one else doing that when i was growing up i watched him play every
position besides proper and yeah just prop yeah so yeah i feel like he started that 14 like 14
can play anywhere and i feel like he couldn't be like a necessary for every team to be honest but
i feel like he's best position he could be struggling i felt like i was not as good as him for every team
is half and i feel like if a team needs a genuine 5-8 like go look for him but i don't think he'll
come back unless we're in the same team so yeah yeah what how do those um conversations start and
have you guys got close to getting into a team together or is it like a two three year down
because you guys have just resigned too so can't see it happening in the next two years but
is that just a dream is it yeah for sure it was a dream like we try to make it happen this year but
it was hard because we're all different management and then obviously we tried to do it like that
like thinking oh yeah nah it's easy as bro we can do it in six months bro you need at least two
two years i reckon but yeah hopefully our next deal we can all link up but if not i'm just i just
want them to be happy hey that's why when tiny resigned i told like we had a deep conversation
about it and i said bro whatever makes you happy like i'm gonna be happy because i like for me like
i don't really care about
my like happiness like in a way if that makes sense like i want my family to be happy and that
so like for me like seeing tiny resign i'm so happy and then obviously i wanted my brother to
come back but if he's happy there bro he's happy and i'm happy right now so i don't really care
yeah i love that bro um what's it like being at the roosters you got access to some of the
best business people in the country mar boros nick politis what are those dudes like
nah they're amazing hey they're just so nice like they look after your family so
well like they'll come and always have a chat to you but for me like i haven't really
spoke to those people like right now because i'm very shy and very different like i'm very
weary like i don't really let people come into my life a to be honest why is that just
how you've grown up yeah just growing up like knowing how fake people are yeah yeah so like
i've always like had a different mindset like don't let this guy like these people get too
close to you because they're fake or like even now like i don't really talk to them
i don't really talk to media and that because i know like it's all fake love like they see
me killing it now but like next week or like a couple weeks i will be playing like trash
and they were like oh this guy sucks like what's he doing like so i've always thought
like people are fake i don't give people a chance to be honest so yeah it's interesting
hey like it makes sense to me yeah for sure um obviously i've seen your comment that you're
playing tag over the off season which helped you get out towards the center to help set
up that trial on the weekend what's that development like what's that development like what's that
development like what's that development like what's that development like what's that development
like like like i watch you play but you play so different compared to like jared and
that like where do you see your game evolving because i know i sort of asked this before but
like you got that nice silky pass got them through why are we going out wide like i just
want to know why you're out on the center are you just filling up the space or did you see
the space there or what nah to be honest like i always grew up playing different positions like
i was always like played five eight played this like and i've been playing yeah i've been playing
tag for ages like we always do off season tag so like my dad got us in
to heaps of those sports and like from my older brother like the knowledge he has to be honest
like he passed it down to me and i i'm like i'm not really a front rower that's dumb like i know
the game pretty well to be honest and after i saw uh pass the ball to victor i saw there was space
outside of um greg so i told angus to push in and if you like watch it in eagle cam i'm putting my
hand up like calling hot for cheese so and obviously i saw junior take the carry before and
and obviously i saw junior take the carry before and he was left center and he was left center and
and obviously i saw junior take the carry before and he was left center and so i was like oh bro i'll go
so i was like oh bro i'll go philly space i've seen an overlap then i was like all i have to do is just
philly space i've seen an overlap then i was like all i have to do is just pass the water to p and
pass the water to p and he'll do the rest so yeah it's like people think it's like so like hard to
he'll do the rest so yeah it's like people think it's like so like hard to do that but it's obviously
do that but it's obviously hard but like yeah people were saying i was being lazy in that
hard but like yeah people were saying i was being lazy in that i wasn't being lazy though yeah because
i wasn't being lazy though yeah because naturally like when you're a murder your job is to fill up
that middle third of the field and like you just naturally progress that way but you're just
cruising out there yeah to be honest i do training center a lot in the season yeah like robo puts me
like everywhere like and he knows like he he pretty much gives me a license to do what i want
to do like he doesn't really tell me oh you need to be here be here he just says play with your
footy brain so like the joe money of the fords bro yeah no way bro no that guy's too good bro i'm just
just me just do you do something do you see your future at 13. nah nah i always i always wanted to
play back robot because that's where i come from like i was a ball playing back row kind of like
inspired to be like way graham a little bit so yeah yeah growing up watching him and i was just
like oh i want to be like that dude like it's a good ball runner good tackler good passer good
kicker you know but then when i came to roosters they moved me from second row to prop and i'm
there but yeah i want to start developing my game and evolving it not just being a up and down
forward so yeah i don't think you're an up and down already bro yeah and i think you know that
already but i see you i see you as a 13 bro for sure like you got the pass in there yeah nah but
victor's a victor's nice yeah victor's nice with it but yeah like robert does slot me in there
sometimes but yeah i'll just play whatever i need to play to be in the 17th yeah for sure um
like i see you with your family
you come in bro what do you want your legacy to be i just want to be a good good family man
hey i've always wanted to be that like i want people to look up to me and be like this guy's
a nice dude a good family man but obviously i'm still adapting because it's hard for me
to talk to people and be like that guy like that says hello to people because i'm come
from a place where i see people as fake and i don't really want to interact with people so
yeah i've got a different mindset to a lot of people like i see a lot of fakeness in in people's
life people don't see so yeah i'm kind of weary with who i let in and yeah oh you feel like you
can see that straight away yeah like i feel like i see like fakeness and that like i have a very
small crew if you see me i'm always with my family or like boys i grew up with like i don't have
mates that i just met like i don't chill with people i just met so i'll grow up with the same
people and i still hang around the same people so yeah i love that well don't move out east then nah
actually that's the that's what's holding me back bro yeah you know my family want me to move out here
do it like even coming back from the nui trip as soon as i touched in home i was like bro how could
i move out of here man yeah um where do you see the roosters going to share can you guys win the
full thing 100 i feel like if you don't see yourself winning you're not going to win like
if you're putting that oh nah we might be here i feel like nah we're going to manifest something
and i feel like yeah we can take the chip this year and hopefully we do but obviously you got
and improve week in week out and just stay humble so i feel like we're working towards that and
hopefully we can do do that at the end of the year are you doing like the last ride thing for
jared like obviously he's been a big part of the club for so long and i see romey and
nafe sort of use that hashtag last ride together are you guys using a similar storyline
no i feel like those boys got the social media down pat whereas
we got a lot of older heads that don't really have that social media but i feel like yeah it is a
last ride for jared we're gonna um action it not talk about it so yeah i feel like we got a different
mindset to those boys but yeah i love all those boys so they let them do them and we can do us
yeah they do their own style yeah yeah that's cool to watch all right bro i just want to say thank
you for jumping on obviously you don't let many people into your life so i appreciate your time
and coming through bro and i'm a roosters fan so i wish you guys all the best hey thanks brother
i appreciate it thank you