Pasifika pioneer inspired a revolution
From being picked straight out of reserve grade and outplaying Kangaroos Immortal Wally Lewis, Olsen Filipaina’s exploits for the Kiwis were the stuff of legend.
But his influence extends far beyond the black-and-white jersey.
When Filipaina first made the trip across the Tasman to play for the Balmain Tigers in 1980, he was just one of four Polynesian players in the NRL (or NSWRL Premiership, as it was known back then).
Little did he know he was paving the way for the Pasifika rugby league revolution, whose playing numbers now make up almost 50 per cent of the competition.
‘‘I just wanted to do what I loved and I didn’t realise how much affect it had on other people,’’ Filipaina told Stuff ahead of the release of his biography, The Big O, this week.
‘‘To get all these accolades from other players and people, I’m just overwhelmed by it actually.’’
The Big O, by Australian author Patrick Skene, details Filipaina’s role as a ‘‘modern-day pioneer’’ for Pacific Island players in the NRL and the numerous barriers he faced along the way, including racism and depression.
It’s a remarkable story of resilience and determination, even if such obstacles meant he never quite reached his true potential in Sydney.
The financial rewards weren’t anywhere close towhat players of his calibre receive today. Filipaina supplemented his income as a ‘garbo’ working on rubbish trucks — a job he’s held for the last 40
David Tua, right, on Olsen Filipaina
years. And the money he did earn from the game was sent back to his father, who he later found used it to gamble.
But it’s clearly evident the halfMa¯ori, half-samoan Kiwi had a profound impact on his people— not just in rugby league.
Filipaina was an inspiration for a generation of athletes, from All Blacks icon Jonah Lomu to heavyweight boxing sensation David Tua.
‘‘They gaveme a hard time about saying ‘O for Awesome’,’’ Tua said in the book of the [misquoted] phrase made famous from his appearance on ‘Wheel of Fortune’. ‘‘But any Samoan that listens to it will clearly tell you I’m saying ‘O for Olsen’.
‘‘Olsen showed us a Polynesian power style, straight over the top with your hips and shoulders. Fast and powerful. We recognised that warrior style.’’
Combining that power with an incredible instinct for the game, brought to life on the fields of Ma¯ngere East in South Auckland,
Filipaina was a blockbusting fiveeighth or centre who was already a star fornew Zealand by the time he joined Balmain.
To most Australian coaches and critics, however, he ended up labelled an enigma who couldn’t replicate his stellar test displays consistently at club level.
What they didn’t recognise were all the issues he had to deal with on top of the 80 minutes on the field each week.
The NRL launched a Pacific Strategy in 2014 and while coaches nowadays wouldn’t survive without being culturally aware, Filipaina recalls people involved in the game in the ‘80s not knowing who Polynesians were.
Racism was rampant and he was subjected to vile abuse – from players and fans – on a regular basis.
‘‘Any racist name you can think of, I was called it,’’ said the 63-yearold, who used the abuse to fuel his performances. ‘‘That’s why I was voted the hardest hitter and the hardest guy to tackle two years in a row . . . that’s how I got a lot of players back.
‘‘And the players I couldn’t get to I took it out on the Australian side in test matches.’’
But the lack of cultural understanding also had a detrimental affect.
The book delves into his relationshipwith Balmain coach Frank Stanton, an old-school tactician who, despite Filipaina’s obvious X-factor, gave little leeway to his star signing’s free-spirited play.
It was the same with road runs, even though Filipaina would turn up to training having virtually ‘‘run amarathon’’ on his garbage run.
As a result, he was perceived to have a poor attitude, was publicly humiliated by Stanton and regularly dropped to reserve grade.
Made to feel like an outsider, on top of dealing with homesickness and racism, Filipaina fell into depression, sapping his joy from the game.
Reopening those old wounds for the book was a challenging process. But watching Pasifika players take the NRL by storm has ultimately left him with an enormous sense of pride.
He also hopes sharing his story will encourage those in need to speak up and seek help.
‘‘With depression, sometimes you don’t even know you’re going through all this stuff and you don’t know how to handle it.
‘‘It’s still happening now. It’s in all sports and a lot of us now need help but as usual, are too scared to ask for it.
‘‘What I went through, the racism and a lot of other hurdles,
I’m glad I stuck with it. And watching the amount of Polynesians playing the game now, it’s like a dream come true.’’
‘‘Olsen showed us a Polynesian power style, straight over the top with your hips and shoulders. Fast and powerful. We recognised that warrior style.’’
Filipaina spent eight years in the NSWRL premiership, playing a total of 103 games for Balmain, Eastern Suburbs and North Sydney.
But it could have been much more had he found amore culturally competent coach with better man-management skills.
He excelled in the Kiwis environment, particularly under Graham Lowe, who had a deep personal understanding of his players and, importantly for Filipaina, encouraged him to play his natural game.
His team-mates have no doubt. There was no mystery, said former Kiwis captain Fred Ah Kuoi, ‘‘just mismanagement’’, with Filipaina a victim of a ‘one size fits all’ philosophy.
Filipaina believes the NRL’S understanding of Pasifika culture has come a long way since his playing days. But there remains work to do, particularly around the financial pressures many young players face to provide for their families, he said.
‘‘A lot of us have got to stop relying on the money from rugby league because it can be taken away from you in the blink of an eye.
‘‘Nine times out of ten these managers aren’t going to even know your name. They just move on to the next goldmine.
‘‘Like everything else, always have a plan B, don’t always rely on football because it can always be taken away with a bad injury. Then what do you do?’’