MARTY PUTS PARTY ON HOLD
MANLY enforcer Martin Taupau has played at the highest level for 11 years and represented his club and country, but there is one box he is yet to tick.
Taupau will be chasing his first finals win when he plays in his 200th NRL game in Friday’s semi-final against the Sydney Roosters.
The closest the former New Zealand Test representative has come to winning a finals game was in 2012 under his current coach Des Hasler at Canterbury.
Sadly, for Taupau, he was overlooked for the Bulldogs’ finals campaign.
Eight seasons on, the Kiwi prop has another chance to claim a finals win when Manly takes on the Roosters.
“It is a pretty cool situation that I’m in,” Taupau said. “It (not winning a finals game) is not a coincidence because I always say everything happens for a reason, but my sole focus is winning our semi-final game. Then I guess the celebrations will come after that.”
Taupau’s first focus is helping Manly make amends for last weekend’s loss to Melbourne. The Sea Eagles were no match for the Storm, and must improve to beat the Roosters.
For Taupau, he knows his front-row match-up against Roosters big man Jared Waerea-Hargreaves will go a long way to deciding Friday’s semi-final.
“Every game for me is personal,” he said. “Jared is their man that they (the Roosters) look upon to be their enforcer, but for us we are all solely focused on what we can bring. I believe we can definitely make some huge movements.”
Taupau may be locked in on this weekend’s game, but he is also leaving space in his brain to appreciate his 200th NRL game milestone.
“It’s funny, the wife and I were reminiscing on the old Bulldogs photos,” he said.
“I suppose the only thing that hasn’t changed is the size of my arms.”