Sydney Roosters forward Sio Siua Taukeiaho visualising smashing Melbourne Storm giants
Sio Siua Taukeiaho does it while he’s brushing his teeth, when he’s driving the car or taking a shower. He sees himself bossing the field and making mincemeat of Melbourne Storm’s monsters.
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On the surface, Sio Siua Taukeiaho is simply brushing his teeth, having a shower or taking the bins out.
But behind the routine exterior, the Sydney Roosters enforcer is tearing through Melbourne Storm monsters Nelson Asofa-Solomona and Jesse Bromwich.
He figures if he can visualise himself stepping up in the absence of Jared Waerea-Hargreaves and helping the Tricolours to the NRL grand final, it might just come to pass.
Like many modern athletes, including some of the NFL players he follows, Taukeiaho believes what happens out there is a result of what happens in here.
So he fills his head with every detail of every movement.
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“It’s picturing myself doing stuff on the field, like breaking tackles,” Taukeiaho told The Daily Telegraph .
“That’s something that builds confidence in me, that lives in me throughout the whole week.
“I just keep picturing it, picturing it, and hopefully on the field I can go and do it. I know a lot of NFL people do that.
“In the shower, driving — even as I was driving here I was picturing myself playing Melbourne and thinking ‘I want to do this, I want to do that, I want to be dominant, leading from the front’.
“You obviously want to be tackling Nelson and Jesse because they’re their two main leaders in the middle.
“It’s mental stuff but I like challenges as well. I want to be the best middle on the field. I want to be dominant.”
That should be music to the ears of Steve ‘Blocker’ Roach, who questioned whether Trent Robinson had another forward to match the mongrel of suspended Waerea-Hargreaves against the game’s biggest units in two-metre-tall Asofa-Solomona and 1.96m Bromwich, who weigh a combined 229kg.
Taukeiaho is in prime position to overcome a groin strain and plug the gaping gap left by the Kiwi international in Saturday’s preliminary final at the SCG.
The 27-year-old Tongan and teammates will be out to reverse statistics showing the Chooks’ winning record slides from 77 per cent with Waerea-Hargreaves to 44 per cent without him.
But Taukeiaho also performs without his mentor Waerea-Hargreaves, over the last three years stepping up his workload by nearly 40 per cent in matches going from 120 metres per game to 167.
“Not having Jared there, it’s going to be a massive challenge for myself and Isaac (Liu) but we’re really excited for that challenge,” Taukeiaho said.
“We’ll be going out there to throw everything at Melbourne.”
By then that’ll be nothing new for Taukeiaho, who’s been mentally throwing everything at the Storm since the moment they thrashed Parramatta on Saturday.
These days his visualisation practice begins almost as soon as the last game ends, thanks to some advice from the retiring Cooper Cronk.
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“I talk to him nearly every day, he’s helped me a lot,” Taukeiaho said.
“More mindset stuff like how to prepare yourself for big games … Cooper is known for preparing for big games.
“Something I’ve learnt is you have to start prepping on a Monday, whereas my mind wasn’t all there until, if we were playing Saturday I’d start kicking in on a Thursday or Friday.
“His mindset was everything starts on a Monday. That’s something I learnt last year, I took that on board and it’s helped me a lot with my footy and as a person.”
Originally published as Sydney Roosters forward Sio Siua Taukeiaho visualising smashing Melbourne Storm giants