The secret to Jason Taumalolo’s successful year,

Jason Taumalolo was labelled the new Sonny Bill Williams early in his NRL career and, as Michael Burgess writes, he has now proven his potential in a breakthrough season.

Ask Jason Taumalolo about the main catalyst behind his extraordinary 2016 season, and the answer could be something straight out of an Anthony Robbins convention.

Sure, the Kiwis lock forward will talk about training harder, credit the contribution of team-mates and point to the fact he was lucky with injuries.

Those are all factors but the most important one was a lot simpler; Taumalolo was determined to find himself as a player, to unlock the power within.

The 23-year-old, who lines up against the Kangaroos this morning (NZT), went from great to “a great” this year, from being a highly-rated member of the Cowboys forward pack to one of the elite players in the sport. The four syllables of “Tauma-lo-lo” even became a regular feature of the commentators’ calls every weekend. And it all started with a promise to himself, to finally be the best he could be.

“Nothing else changed too much, it all just came down to myself,” says Taumalolo ahead of this morning’s test. “It was all in my head. I knew I could be capable of becoming a better player and that is what a lot of people talked about: will I eventually live up to the potential I had?

“That is something no one else could do but myself. I needed to have that mentality that I wanted to go out and prove a point this year and hopefully I did that.”

Taumalolo was always tipped for big things. The former Papakura Sea Eagle was spotted by the Cowboys as a 13-year-old and signed a deal in a Townsville pizza parlour that same night.

After moving to Australia, Taumalolo became just the third 15-year-old behind Justin Hodges and Will Hopoate to make the Australian schoolboys’ team.

The hype advanced in 2010, when he made his NRL debut at 17, the youngest in Cowboys history, and was touted as the next Sonny Bill Williams.

Taumalolo struggled with the label. He took time to develop and as recently as 2013 spent part of the season in the Queensland Cup.

The 2014 Four Nations was his international breakthrough, and the next year, he was one of the most impressive forwards in the NRL, a key part of North Queensland’s historic premiership win.

This season, he has lifted to a new stratosphere, becoming probably the best power forward in the game. He averaged a remarkable 166m per match, surpassing the 200m mark seven times. Taumalolo also had 12 line breaks — more than double any of his previous seasons — and a careerhigh 22 tackles per match. His impact was epitomised by the epic Cowboys-Broncos semifinal, which stretched on for almost 90 minutes. Taumalolo was outstanding in the second half of that match, continually scattering Brisbane defenders, and his charges eventually broke the Broncos’ resolve.

“My second stint coming back on towards the end of games have been the most important times for me this season,” he says. “When the games are on the line, they are the moments I want to be a part of. That is what defines me as a player; trying to be in those tough moments and changing the game around. I’ve been successful sometimes, others I haven’t.”

His feats were recognised, as he picked up the Players’ Player of the Year award and the joint Dally M (shared with Cooper Cronk). The latter was particularly meritorious, as he was the first forward in a decade to win, and just the second