Afu’s primed to win
A HEART-to-heart chat with coach Graham Herlihy has set Sepeti Junior Afu free to be the powerful prop who could deliver Griffith Colleges a grand final berth.
A meeting with unbeaten Surfers Paradise is on the line when the Knights host Helensvale in a preliminary final at the TAFE fields in Benowa.
Colleges enter as underdogs, having fallen to the Hogs twice this year, but have steadily built form to the point where they thrashed Palm Beach Currumbin 52-8 in last weekend’s elimination final.
Confident about his side’s chances, Afu feels he too has improved since starting the season with limited attacking opportunities.
“I was really upset with it, I felt like I wasn’t being used to my potential or what I could offer to the team,” said Afu, whose brother Will “Wild Bill” Nasio is the current Australian heavyweight boxing champion.
“After (a) game, I think I was walking around with a sour look on my face and he (Herlihy) asked me if I was all right and I was like I just didn’t get to touch the ball, I wanted to do more and I couldn’t.
“That was our structure then and he has changed it now so we have a bit more ball coming to our big runners.”
This season is Afu’s first in union. He grew up in South Auckland playing rugby league, representing New Zealand at under-16s level before playing under-20s for NRL clubs including Melbourne.
He lined up in the Newcastle competition until last year but was struggling to muster the passion to chase higher honours.
After all, there is much more to his life than footy. Afu became a father at 18. Four years later he met future wife Nicole, a single mother of two. On Wednesday night, the couple discovered they have their second child together on the way.
Family comes first for the now 25-year-old.
“After the games I jet off. My kids come out with my wife and she’s there and I can see them running around,” he said.
“So as soon as the game is done and (we sing the team song) then I am out the door: bedtime duties, dinner duties, bathing duties.” He describes working with special education students as a teacher aide at Beenleigh State High School as “the biggest reward that I have seen” and is planning to become a fully-fledged special education teacher.
Afu also holds a youth adviser role at his church which, along with family commitments, often results in him missing training sessions.
He has set his sights on the perfect way to repay Herlihy’s understanding: Winning him a premiership.
Following the preliminary final, women’s sevens teams Colleges, Palm Beach and the University of Queensland Gatton will play for the Selena Tranter Cup in a tri-series kicking off at 5pm.