How the Storm signed Suliasi Vunivalu, the unlikeliest NRL grand final star
SULIASI Vunivalu’s grand final journey began at the end of a dusty road leading to a modest home in a ramshackle town outside Suva, Fiji.
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TITLES aren’t just won in grand finals. Sometimes they are won at the end of a dusty road leading to a modest home in a ramshackle town outside Suva, Fiji.
Melbourne Storm recruitment manager Paul Bunn found himself driving down this road three years ago in pursuit of the one of the hottest young talents in schoolboy rugby.
A kid called Suliasi Vunivalu.
That Bunn found himself on this journey speaks of the heated battle between NRL clubs and local and international rugby teams for elite Polynesian talent. And the measures clubs must take to win the signature of the most sought after young stars.
Vunivalu, a hulking child with exceptional potential, had been spotted playing in a national schoolboy carnival for Lelean Memorial School, near Suva, and given a two year scholarship by St Kentigern College in Auckland.
But the recruitment of a young Fijian by wealthy New Zealand schools is merely the first battle for their talent. At St Kentigerns, Vunivalu’s try scoring feats soon attracted the attention of French rugby clubs including Clement Pointrenaud and the New Zealand Rugby Union.
Bunn’s first inkling was a phone call from St Kentigern coach Tai Lavea, the twin brother of former Storm player Tasesa Lavea, who mentioned the giant winger with the habit of scoring when he wanted. Soon after, Vunivalu came to Melbourne with St Kentigerns to play a trial game before a Rebels game.
Bunn saw part of the game with Matt Duffie, another St Kentigerns product who played for Storm.
“We watched for 15 minutes and he scored a couple,’’ says Bunn. “We followed him very closely after that.’’
The Storm knew they would have to pluck Vunivalu from the clutches of a rugby-playing school eager to steer him to either a local or French club.
St Kentigern guarded their students closely and direct access to Vunivalu was difficult. So Bunn worked on his father Sailosi and mother Kalesi who lived in modest circumstances near Suva and spoke little English.
The Storm used Fijian Wise Kativerata, who played first grade with St George, Souths and Parramatta, to speak with Vunivalu’s parents in their native tongue.
Kativerata extolled the virtues of the Storm’s welfare program, while another Fijian Sisa Waqa — then playing for the Storm — also spoke glowingly to the family about the club and the city during several phone calls.
The Vunivalus had hired agent George Christodoulou — who also manages Semi Radradra. The Storm convinced him the Storm was the right fit, but they still needed to get his parents on board.
Near the end of Vunivalu’s final year at school in 2013, Bunn was at a rugby league carnival in Nadi, three hours from Suva, and worried about the growing competition for Vunivalu.
“There were heaps of scouts there and I said to George we are going to have to slip away and sign this kid and get the deal done,’’ he said.
That is how Bunn found himself on that dusty road to Suva and, eventually, in possession of the signature he craved. “My main objective wasn’t to watch any footy,’’ he says. ‘’I just wanted to get Suli to sign.’’
Bunn had believed Vunivalu had little interest in rugby league when he pursued him. However Vunivalu says: “The Storm was my team.’’
The Storm had an ace up their sleeve they did not play.
But for both the Storm and its young star, the details of Vunivalu’s recruitment now seem irrelevant.
The focus is on his astonishing performance — 23 tries in the 20 games since he made his first grade debut in round seven.
Making his first season more incredible, Vunivalu had to adjust to a new code while endured operations on a thumb and shoulder in his first two years in Melbourne.
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He had played just 27 games of rugby league before he made his first grade debut.
Storm football manager Frank Ponissi says the Storm had run out of outside backs and Vunivalu was literally the “last man standing’’ when he was chosen.
His selection was only confirmed on the Thursday before the game against Wests Tigers, necessitating frantic efforts to get his parents to Australia.
“It’s not easy to get someone out of a little village in Fiji at the last minute,’’ says Ponissi. “We had to call in a few favours to get the visas sorted out.’’
At the team meeting before the game, fellow Fijian Marika Koroibete spoke in his native tongue about Vunivalu and presented his jersey in front of his parents.
“That was a pretty special moment,’’ says Vunivalu. “I was a bit emotional to have my own countryman presenting me my jersey. I will one day tell my young son (Beau) what it was like.’’
Incredibly, Vunivalu scored just one minute into his debut. Then he scored again in the Storm’s dramatic one point victory.
He has since arranged for his parents to get cable TV.
During Storm games they put their television outside the front door of their modest house and the entire neighbourhood turns up to cheer his feats.
You ask Vunivalu what it would mean to score in a grand final.
“It would mean a lot,’’ he says. ‘’But I’m not focusing on that. I’m focusing on the little things.’’
Vunivalu might have played for any number of clubs across the planet.
But from those words, you can tell he is now a Storm man.
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