Why star Eels duo Blake Ferguson and Maika Sivo are Parramatta’s power
Success-starved Parramatta have collapsed under the weight of expectation for yearsm, but now have two heavy-hitters lifting the club to new heights.
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Blake Ferguson is standing over a barbell and dancing to whatever tune blares from the gym speakers.
“More weight,” the winger shouts loudly, body bulging from a NSW Origin singlet.
And so, more weight arrives.
A Blues staffer quickly adding two more large, green plates as, around the room, an entire playing group now shouts, whistles and urges up what really is an unlikely mass of metal.
For this isn’t January.
But July.
And only days out from a State of Origin game.
Which isn’t exactly the time to be attempting personal records for a hang clean.
But Fergy Ferg, he’s going big.
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And with purpose.
Understanding only days earlier, and after been recalled to a Blues side already down one-zip, this enigmatic Parramatta Eel spoke to the group about squaring things his way.
“By running,” he said, “to hurt”.
And now 48 hours on, Ferguson wanted to back said claim with evidence.
Specifically, a 150kg hang clean.
No small thing considering inside Camp Blue this particular afternoon, and around the game on most others, even the strongest NRL forwards usually top out around 130kg.
But Ferguson?
He passed that mark two lifts ago.
And soon enough three as, with even coach Brad Fittler now bellowing, said bar is hoisted, first, off the floor and then — whoooooooshka! — up and over his head in one lifting, twisting, rush.
All of which has League Central now wanting to know just one question: How the bloody hell is he not the strongest winger at Parramatta?
“Ah, I dunno what Maika Sivo is lifting,” Ferguson laughs when quizzed on his fellow Eels flyer yesterday.
“Did he beat my squat record recently? I’m not even sure.
“I reckon we should go find him and ask.”
At which point we tell Fergo how we already did.
Only last week, The Daily Telegraph revealed the Fijian rookie squatted 285kg — or five kilos up on the previous club record set earlier this year by Ferguson.
Which is not only some lift itself, but goes a long way to explaining why Parramatta are suddenly NRL premiership smokies.
Not exactly favourites to beat the Melbourne Storm at AAMI Park this Saturday night, but not without hope either.
Which is some turnaround for the reigning wooden spooners.
A franchise too, whose only real signings for 2019 are this same pair of pick ‘n’ swingers.
Which isn’t exactly how a club overhauls its premiership fortunes, right?
No, usually such makeovers require $1 million being spent on a Kangaroo halfback. Maybe a NSW Origin backrower.
Or both.
Yet for Parramatta, Ferguson arrived in pre-season not only carrying more question marks than The Riddler, but whispers of an entire summer spent celebrating his Roosters premiership triumph.
And Sivo … well, Penrith gave him up for just $75,000.
Or the NRL equivalent of pocket change.
So how the bloody hell are they now the best buys not named John Bateman?
Remembering not so long ago, wingers were the drummers of rugby league.
Guys who hung out with footballers.
Yet now in ‘Sivuson’ — or maybe we call them ‘Fergivo’? — the Eels have secured a powerhouse pairing who this season are scoring tries, busting tackles, breaking records, spinning turnstiles, causing nightmares, backflipping, ballbusting, trending on Facebook, clearing red zones, even causing entire stadiums to chant in unison.
Oh yeah, they’re also likely the strongest players in rugby league, too.
But as for which Eel has the heaviest squat lift?
“Yeah, I’ve got Fergo,” the Fijian cackles. “Five kilos.”
And as for his other lifts?
“No, only squats,” the winger grins. “Coming off shoulder surgery this year, I haven’t gone heavy for dead lifts or bench press.
“Only go light.
“But who knows? Maybe next year.
“Right now, squat is my best.”
Incredibly, Sivo had never even seen the inside of a gym before his late teens, when selected for the Fijian under-20s rugby team.
“We’d just mix cement in tins,” he recalls. “Then place them at each end of a metal bar.
“That was our weights.”
Back then, Sivo was an anonymous cassava farmer.
Yet now, this fella with the code’s most tries, biggest squat and largest viral video — thanks to that teary Father’s Day reunion piece — has morphed into the game’s greatest cult figure too.
But as for getting used to the fame?
“At the start of the year, when Parramatta first ask about me doing interviews, I just smile and say ‘no English’,” he grins. “That’s what I kept saying to our media people: ‘no English, no English’.
“But eventually they went to Brad (coach Arthur) and said ‘Is Maika all right for interviews?’ He said that, yes, I was.
“So the next week, they put me up for interviews again. And this time, I had to do them.”
And as for being stopped on the streets on Parramatta?
“Whenever I walk around, I wear a hoodie,” he laughs. “Usually pull a hat down low over my face too.
“I never expected any of this.
“Even when the video of me and my dad came out, before its release (an NRL official) told us ‘this will go crazy’. But I still wasn’t sure.
“Then I see on Facebook or something that it’s had over a million views. That’s when I think ‘oh, geez, it’s gone viral’.
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“I got hundreds of messages too.
“People contacted me on Facebook, on Instagram … many I didn’t even know.”
Ferguson, meanwhile, is undergoing significant changes in his own life.
Off the grog.
On with Brad Fittler.
Even adding 6kg of muscle via a rigorous physical overhaul.
But as for his own biggest gym lifts?
“I’m not really sure,” he says coyly. “And I don’t really like boasting about weights or anything like that.
“Over the past few years, I’ve just tried to get the work done.
“I’m 29 now.
“Time is going quickly and I’m just trying to stay ahead of the game in the way I do things.
“I just believe you get the work done, everything else will look after itself.”
And now this Saturday night, again, he gets to go prove it.
Originally published as Why star Eels duo Blake Ferguson and Maika Sivo are Parramatta’s power