Coaching goal for Kaho
Retiring Tongan keen to inspire Bond youngsters
BOND University back-rower Paula Kaho has signalled his intentions to join the club’s coaching ranks once he hangs up his boots at the end of the current Queensland Premier Rugby season.
At 35, the former Tongan international is pretty well double the age of many of his emerging Bull Sharks teammates and he is determined to make his experience count as they try to resurrect their campaign. Bond could quite conceivably have won all five of their games to date; instead they have just one victory scattered between a series of narrow losses.
“It’s a young team and the boys have got the potential,” Kaho, a youth worker, said.
“It’s just the small mistakes and miscommunication between the forwards and the backs (that has cost us). I guess that’s where the frustration comes because we do know that we can finish games, it’s just about making sure that the boys believe it.
“So my role, I’m in my last year, I’m helping out on the field just making sure that I can help these boys out. They have to believe in themselves and be confident.”
Born and raised in Tonga, Kaho played for Brisbane club Souths in his previous stint living on the Gold Coast. Since then, rugby has taken him to Canberra – where he played under now Bond coach Brad Harris – as well as Jersey in the Channel Islands and Sydney.
He wants to spread his knowledge from that journey onto the next generation coming through the Bond system.
“I’ve said it to Brad, my goal for after playing is getting into coaching and help young boys grow into the game and love the game as much as I have and show them that rugby does take them around the world,” Kaho said.
Bond host Wests this afternoon. The Bulldogs are four places higher on the ladder in third but are only seven points ahead, adding significance to the clash.