A conversation with Kalifa Faifai Loa

[TITAN PETE]

By Tony Webeck, Chief Queensland Correspondent
NRL.com
6:00am Thu 20th November, 2014



Believe it or not but there is a serious side to Kalifa Faifai Loa.

The kid who came to prominence on the back of corner-post contortionism and represented the Kiwis in 2011 has spent the best part of his five-year NRL career to date drifting in and out of first grade.

But ahead of his second season on the Gold Coast the Titans winger is getting ready to fight for his spot once again in an ever competitive environment but we know little more about him than that which is shared on his Instagram account.


For instance, did you know that Faifai Loa only started playing rugby league thanks to a friend forging his mother's signature? That he has never met his biological father and that he recently spent a week brightening the lives of youngsters from the Starlight Foundation?

You will soon.

What's your favourite word? Yep.
What's your least favourite word? I don't know eh.
What turns you on creatively, spiritually or emotionally? Girl motivation. It's always good to have a girl pushing you on.
What turns you off? When something goes too long than it was meant to go.
What's your favourite swear word? I don't swear that much eh. Nah, the 'f' word; when you see it on TV, I like lip reading.
What sound or noise do you love? I don't know, what are these questions? At night I like it quiet, during the day I don't mind the music.
What sound or noise do you hate? Heavy metal music. I don't like heavy metal.
What profession other than your own would you like to attempt? I don't have a clue; I'm not good at anything eh. I don't even know what I'm doing life after footy.
What profession would you not like to attempt? I wouldn't want to be an abalone diver.
If Heaven exists, what would you like to hear God say when you arrive at the Pearly Gates? Here's your family.

Faifai Loa and I got off to an awkward start. As a guest at the Titans' presentation night in September, I was surprised when the affable 24-year-old approached our table and told me that he still had the photo we'd had taken together.

Having never officially met him before, I was somewhat confused but then we quickly established that he thought I was "the ref". He'd confused me for NRL referee Gavin Badger and the pair had had their photo taken together as evidenced by this Twitter post.



So Kalifa didn't have any idea who I was, which led me to think, I know next to nothing about Kalifa Faifai Loa.

The extent of my knowledge was of a talented wingman whose commitment to the cause had been questioned courtesy of regular visits to the lower grades, particularly under Neil Henry at the Cowboys over a three-year period.

He played 22 games in 2011 and earned selection in the New Zealand team for the Four Nations tournament but over the next two years totalled just 13 NRL games and admits that he found motivation difficult when relegated to the Intrust Super Cup.

"Up at Townsville I never played consistent when I went back to Q Cup," Faifai Loa tells NRL.com.

"That was probably the hard thing, just not playing consistent at Q Cup but I did step up when I come up but it didn't help when I didn't play consistent at Q Cup level.

"And then over here this year playing for Tweed [Heads], I reckon it was the best year I've played at Q Cup level which was all right and it gave me the opportunity this year to play."

It took until Round 10 before Faifai Loa was handed his first start as a Titan but his form in the Intrust Super Cup earned him a call-up to the Queensland Residents team – "I didn't even think I'd be eligible" – and by the end of the year he was a regular in the Titans' 17, scoring four tries in nine games.

With the addition of Josh Hoffman from the Broncos for 2015 competition for spots in the Titans' backline doesn't get any easier but as one of six children growing up in Avondale, Auckland, Faifai Loa knows a bit about competition.

Faifai Loa's mother is Samoan/Maori and his biological father who he has never met is half Chinese, half Tongan, but it is his stepdad whom he calls Dad.

His two brothers and three sisters may call him a 'mummy's boy' but when an eight-year-old Kalifa started showing an interest in playing footy with his mates, an act of deception from a friend put this mummy's boy in the naughty corner.

"How it started was my mate forged a letter at primary school to pretend it was my mum's signature and then my mum got angry," he recalls. "I got a hiding from it because now she had to take me to footy training when I was young. I thank him for that.

"She ended up letting me play because I told her all my mates were playing. I was eight, and that's a late bloomer in New Zealand, they start around five or six."

Playing for the Marist Saints club, Faifai Loa shared the junior fields with fellow NRL players Mark Ioane and Siuatonga Likiliki and was enticed to Australia as a teenager to join the Dragons, where he made his NRL debut in 2010 at 20 years of age.

The talent was never in question but the attitude regularly came under the microscope and when it was reported earlier this year that he had applied for a place in the current series of "Big Brother", the Titans started to doubt whether their new recruit had his head in the game.

"I didn't play for 11 weeks because of that. My attitude wasn't in the game apparently. That write-up, it just made me sound bad," he says, flatly denying that he applied to go into the house.

Because through all the jokes, all the trash-talking of Ioane's skills playing FIFA on the PlayStation – "He's a sore loser too, you can tell everyone that. He tries to turn off the PlayStation so we won't see the scoreboard" – is a footballer who has learned to appreciate the opportunity at hand.

He says he doesn't have the energy to muck around at training like he used to but he also made sure he turned up to day one of pre-season training with some work under his belt as a way to prove to Henry that he deserves to be part of his team for Round 1.

He hates pre-season – they all do – but having spent a week granting wishes for the Starlight Foundation during his time off he carries with him the motivation to prove there is more than flash to this finisher.

"Everyone had different disabilities. Some couldn't walk, some had brain tumours and operations so it was their wish to come to the Gold Coast to all the theme parks," he said of the wish he along with Mark Ioane granted as representatives of the Titans.

"It was basically a promo gig for the club and then one of the kids asked us if we could go to Dreamworld with them. We said we'd ask the supervisor and she said it was OK and then he asked us again if we would come to Sea World and we ended up going to Sea World.

"It was good. I felt like it was good, making them smile and seeing their families smile and stuff like that and then coming again to see them three times that week I reckon was good for me."

[Titanic]

I am not sure whether I am refreshed or depressed after reading this. How many thousands of youngsters every year drift around on the fringes of professional sport where the only really incentive is to perform? I've got to hand it to Neil Henry, he must think KFFL has something because rugby league does not suffer underachievers too often. I hope he goes well this coming year because on his day he is a talent.