“We have to hurry or there will be no seats.”

Our guide says it is how it is.

It is the night of the Storm-Cowboys game and Theo Thomas, a Kundiawa local and friend of PNG Post-Courier reporter, ‘Big Pat’ and Rita Peki, has got us the hottest tickets in town.

News Australia has partnered with the Post-Courier, the “Heartbeat of PNG”, to see how league fanatics in the league-mad highlands support Storm rising star and “superhero“ Justin Olam.

You must be quick to get a seat at Peter Nime’s “video house”, one of the 30-40 in Kundiawa, a small town, and birthplace of Olam, on the Wara Simbu (Chimbu River) in the shadows of Mount Wilhelm.

Theo was not wrong.

It is standing room only when we arrive at Nime’s video house in the heart of Kundiawa.

As cameraman ‘Steve’ pans the jam-packed room locals meet our lens with a smile and four fingers raised.

“If someone in ‘4 kona town’ (Kundiawa) shows you four fingers, don’t worry, be happy,” Big Pat says.

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“That’s the new normal in Kundiawa, the astronomic effect of No. 4 on the back of JO!”

As kick-off beckons the ‘Olam, Olam, Olam’ chants escalated towards a roof-raising crescendo.

The catch cry “Waelo Pangra Wah” — Pidgin for “Let’s Get Wild” — is also common around these parts.

It really is “standing room only” as the adrenaline-charged crowd is glued to one small television perched on a ledge up against an exposed timber wall.

Despite not being able to extract from Nime the price of admission, Big Pat has since learned plans are afoot for a new “video house” to cater to an increased and growing demand.

“JO fans are willing to pay anything to see him put on a shot, run the ball and smash Nime’s wall when he scores,” Big Pat says.

No try for Olam on this night but some big hits — including a bone-jarring shot on Cowboy Justin O’Neill — has the crowd in a frenzy.

The next day, policeman Sgt Wellis revealed a welcomed by-product of the “JO effect”.

“It’s like every young man in Simbu wants to emulate their hero JO,” crime fighter Wellis told Big Pat.

“They’ve turned away from bad things and are now into footy. Everyone wants the No. 4 jersey.”

A community leader from Olam’s village, in the Sinasina-Yonggomugl District, excitedly told Big Pat how proud “the people of Dom and the whole of Simbu” are about the “famous clansman’s exploits”.

The legend of Olam in Kundiawa is trending as fast as the Wara Simbu and as high as Mt Wilhelm.

Waelo Pangra Wah!

– Patrick Levo (Big Pat) and Rita Peki, of the PNG Post-Courier

MOVING TO MELBOURNE

Traffic was not something Olam took any notice of until he arrived in Melbourne in 2017.

For starters in Lae, the second-largest city in PNG with a population of about 100,000, where Olam studied Applied Physics and played semi-professionally, time and distance travelled married up.

“Five kilometres is 10 minutes (in PNG), constant you know, that’s it,” Olam said.

“Here you need to see what time of the day it is and if it is busy it takes longer normal.

“I did a pretty good job with that back then because I didn’t have a car so I was relying on public transport and Melbourne is so good with the transport, it helped me a little bit.”

Living with a host family in Ascot Vale gave Olam a leg up on navigating Melbourne but cold mornings and packed trains prompted the keen road-tripper to shell out for a set of wheels.

“I like to sleep in,” Olam confided.

“I felt like it was easier to get a car and plus, I like to go for adventures and road trips to keep my mind away from footy to refresh.”

Olam knew the language, but the accent, like the traffic, took some getting used to.

We speak fast here, some quicker than others, mixing in slang terms with the Queen’s English, then there is Cameron Munster — the Usain Bolt of linguistics.

“He skips words aye,” Olam said.

“You can’t keep up.”

As Olam became comfortable in Melbourne and surrounds his confidence and independence grew.

Having grown up on traditional chicken or pork dishes, cooked in coconut cream with sweet potato, corn, beans and vegetables, the human wrecking ball set out to explore culinary Melbourne.

“I was eating all kinds, I’d go Indian, I’d go Asian, I’d go Middle Eastern, I’d go whatever, I love to eat new food and try new things so it was good for me because I had a good time doing that,” Olam said.

“I would go out and go to good restaurants and try food that I have never had before to see what it’s like, if I don’t like it I don’t eat it again, but if I like it I probably get it next time.

“That was a bit of adventure for me, which I enjoyed.”

– Gilbert Gardiner

ISLAND BOYS

Big city life is only possible because of the bond between “island boys”.

It is a connection forged on similar values and upbringing, which helps to combat culture shock.

A big reason Olam has managed to stave the pull of home away, aside from an innate determination to make the most of his NRL journey, has been Fijian prop Tui Kamikamica.

“We have a lot of things in common,” Olam said.

“The food we eat, listen to the same kind of music and pretty much he helped me not feeling home sick or feeling like I’m left alone here or whatever.

The inseparable “brothers” first crossed paths first in 2016 in the Test arena and “clicked” the next year both reporting at Storm on the first day of pre-season.

They spent the best part of two seasons shuttling between Melbourne and its Queensland Cup feeder side Sunshine Coast until breaking into the top squad properly last year.

“The good part of it is me and him are both playing first grade at the moment,” Olam said.

“To be successful together is what makes it even sweeter, I guess.”

For Kamikamica, seeing Olam take the first tentative steps in Melbourne was like staring into a mirror, having lived the “shock” himself as an 18 year-old Fijian in Sydney.

“I knew how he felt when he first got to Melbourne,” Kamikamica said.

“I put myself there to help him if he ever felt homesick … was pretty hard for me when I came here.

“One of the things that makes us stronger, I’ve been in his shoes when I first got here, so giving him advice to keep our focus on what is important and that is footy and family.”

– GG

AT THE CROSSROADS

Satisfaction not failure motivated Olam.

After three lacklustre performances in 2018, Olam was resigned to eventually being cut.

One way or another, Olam would go out on his terms.

“I had three opportunities to prove myself … I didn’t play well and felt like my opportunity was gone,” Olam said.

“I didn’t think they were going to play me again, after that my mindset was to pretty much work as hard as I could and put myself in the best position so I don’t have to regret it.

The turning point, while not obvious then, came in June 2019 when Storm medical staff urged Olam to withdraw from an upcoming PNG international due to a hamstring niggle.

It was a devastating blow for the proud Kumul, but ultimately the decision defined Olam’s future.

“I didn’t like it because I missed the opportunity to represent my country,” Olam said.

“It is something I’m very proud of, but I think it was a good thing, if I did play I would’ve hurt my hamstring and I wouldn’t get that chance (play NRL again), I listened to them, which helped me.”

Olam was down the Storm pecking order at the start of the year but untimely injuries thrust the developing outside back into the spotlight, a Round 15 win over the Roosters at Adelaide Oval.

“Marion Seve hurt his shoulder and Craig came up to me before captain’s run and said ‘you’re going to play’,” Olam said.

“I was like ‘Oh’, I didn’t even prepare myself.

“I had nothing to lose, they gave me three chances (2018) and I couldn’t show them what I had so that was my last chance, I was going to go out there and be aggressive.

“I didn’t expect to play the next week as well, I thought it was going to be a one-off game for me.”

Olam has not looked like relinquishing the starting centre position ever since.

– GG

HUNTER BECOMES THE HUNTED

THE more homework Melbourne Storm did on Olam the stronger the recruitment case became.

With natural speed and no bad habits, due to his limited exposure to organised rugby league, the stocky PNG Hunter had the physical traits and acumen to “make it”.

Former PNG Rugby League chief executive Bob Cutmore put Olam on Melbourne’s radar in 2016, inviting Storm recruitment guru Paul Bunn to scout the “rugged” outside back.

“Everything he’s done it’s come from his own hard work and learned the game,” Cutmore said.

“He had a lot of the things you look for in a natural rugby league player but he had no finesse because he didn’t understand the game.

“If you said to him I want you to run through that wall, he’d say ‘OK I’ll run through that wall’.

Olam only played semi-pro in PNG before signing with Hunters for the 2016 Queensland Cup season.

The regular matches in Queensland allowed Storm to track Olam for about 12 months before Bunn booked an interview with Craig Bellamy, Frank Ponissi and Dave Donaghy.

“We did a stack of homework,” Bunn said.

“Through people connected with the Hunters knew his character, his determination and willingness or want to achieve … all that just kept adding up and adding up.”

Olam accepted a base two year-old contract and pledge to work hard.

“They got to be able to train to get there,” Bunn said.

“No good bringing a lazy boy to our place, they won‘t last five minutes, we knew he wasn’t lazy.”

– GG

PNG PATHWAY

OLAM is the first to admit there are “heaps of players” better than him in PNG.

Yet the 26 year-old is one of only three PNG-born Kumuls currently at NRL clubs, including Xavier Coates (Broncos) and Nene Macdonald (Sharks).

The reason? Work ethic usually, with traces of homesickness, but mostly drive.

“Hard work always beats talent and it’s true,” Olam said.

“I’ve experienced it, doesn’t matter how talented, big or fast someone is, if you work hard you will get what you want.

“My advice (to PNG youth) would be work hard, be patient, be disciplined and trust the process.”

Olam hopes to play a part in the “process”, as a role model and mentor for generation next.

It is a pedestal “island boys” know of well, a mental “burden” of sorts, which comes with playing for not only yourself and your club, but family, friends, countries, villages, parents’ villages and so on.

“I want to play well and hopefully give the opportunity to other young kids to do the same.”

Former PNG Rugby League chief Bob Cutmore said Olam’s commitment to “really learn the game” at Storm could motivate an entire generation.

The PNG way is typically run hard, tackle hard, with players’ reliant on instinct over structure.

But Olam, at the urging of mentors in PNG and Australia, has embraced the systematic Storm way.

“Justin will be the next icon in New Guinea,” Cutmore said.

“He could be a real light for young kids to come through. The new Marcus Bai.

“Bai had a cult following in Melbourne and Justin is starting to get that too.

“You got eight million people in PNG that love the game … he could do so much good for the game.”

– GG

FROM IDOLS TO … TEAMMATES

LIKE many budding league fans of the same vintage, Olam would shout “I’m Billy!” as he played with friends, often using plastic Coca Cola bottles filled with grass as the makeshift football.

“I used to love Darren Lockyer (as a young Broncos fan) and I would go for Queensland,” Olam said.

“When Billy came and played for Queensland that’s when he totally stole me.”

One could only then imagine what emotions Olam experienced, some 20-years later, when the real Billy Slater presented the wide-eyed Kumul with his Storm debut jersey before Round 9, 2018.

“I was just a fan and to get the opportunity to train with my idols was a dream come true for me,” proud Storm No. 187 Olam said.

“Looking back to where I came from, it was nothing like what I thought I‘d be able to do, I dared to dream about it but it was just a fairy tale.”

The next pinch me moment came in Round 17 the following year when Olam broke through to score his first NRL try in Cameron Smith’s historic 400th game.

“I feel like I will look back (one day) and be like I played with Cameron in his 400th game and I scored my first try,” Olam said.

TIGER TIME

Justin Olam was once a Tiger in Papua New Guinea.

In a humble rugby league beginning, Olam, now a household name, was spotted by the Lae Snax Tigers talent scouts playing for Unitech Spartans in Lae, PNG‘s northern city.

Impressed by his speed, the Tigers team manager and coach Tim Rodgers gave Olam a chance in the Digicel Cup, the PNG National Rugby League elite competition.

“The first thing I noticed was Justin was as a very well disciplined person with good attitude on and off the field,” Rodgers said.

“Coaching and teaching players new skills comes natural to us Papua New Guineans, however, credit to Justin and his family he was a very well disciplined person.”

Olam was able to juggle study and sport with the support of the Tigers, who prioritised the importance of players having a life after football.

He would do extra sessions with teammates at the school and sometimes when the Tigers playing away Olam would leave before the rest of the team to get to class in the morning.

“It’s not like whether you make it or you don’t make it you’re not in the team, we trust him to do the right thing and that’s what he always did,” Rodgers said.

Rodgers has kept in contact with Olam since the life-changing move to Melbourne.

“To be where he is now wasn’t shocking because it was as expected, he fitted well in the system at the higher level and also he was very good off the field,” Rodgers said.

“To come this far and to even play in NRL is a big thing let alone played a full season in a champion club like Melbourne Storm.

“Also, played under a world champion coach like Craig Bellamy and has rub shoulders with some greatest players ever played in rugby league.

“It’s always encouraging to see guys like that, who have worn the same jersey, come through the same process.”

– SABRINA GALATAU and SIMON KESLEP of the POST-COURIER SPORTS

OLAM’S HOMETOWN
By Big Pat in Port Moresby

Kundiawa, the home town of Melbourne Storm‘s rising star Justin Olam, is famously known as ‘4 Kona’ (four corners) town in Papua New Guinea’s highlands.

It is the provincial headquarters of Chimbu Province, a place which is also famous for hosting PNG‘s Mount Wilhelm at 4,509 metres, our highest peak.

Derived from a song in the 1990s titled ‘Kundiawa 4 Kona town’, the croaky lyrics made highlands highway PMV (public motor vehicle passenger) drivers to stop regularly in Kundiawa due to its magnetic appeal to their passengers.

They cashed in on 4 Kona town and the larrikin country lifted the image of the dusty little spot on the PNG music charts. But like all novel songs, it could not surpass the famous peak of nearby Mount Wilhelm.

But in Chimbu, they click their fingers and say ‘waelo, pangra wah’. There will come a time when people all over the world will talk wildly about Simbu.

That time is here with Simbu‘s favourite son JO whose popularity in Kundiawa is trending as fast as the powerful Wara Simbu (river that runs nearby) as it is as high as Mount Wilhelm.

So we took a bush ride recently to Kundiawa to check on an outbreak of JO fever that runs feverishly deep every weekend in Simbu when the Melbourne Storm trot onto the footy park.

The only cure for the local inhabitants is a try by their favourite superhero JO.

It‘s the night of the Storm v Cowboys game. Our guide Theo Thomas, an old friend and NBC radio cowboy, tells me ’we have to hurry or there will be no seats’.

The venue is Peter Nime‘s video house in the heart of 4 Kona town. Light rain falls as we arrive to a jam packed house. A storm is indeed brewing.

Theo is not wrong. It is standing room only.

Maria smiles at our cameraman Steve and gives him four fingers. Steve, his heart beating wildly, smiles back hoping for the best.

Kick off, game on thunder and lightning. Suddenly the roof lifts in a crescendo of chants ‘Olam, Olam, Olam’.

My young reporter Rita Peki is stirred but not shaken. Its standing room only remember.

Here tonight, and every other night when the Storm rocks the 4 Konas of Kundiawa, it’s indeed standing room only.

Nime can‘t tell me how much he charges at the gate but JO fans are willing to pay anything just to see him put on a shot, run the ball and smash Nime’s wall when he scores.

It‘s 80 minutes of adrenaline pumped war-chanting all across town, in every available video house, JO fever reaches astronomical pitch. Boom ka boom! Waelo pangra wah.

No try tonight but some big hits from JO send the crowd into a frenzy.

Policeman Sgt Wellis is well known in Simbu as a crime fighter. The next day he describes the JO effect.

It‘s like every young man in Simbu wants to emulate their hero JO. They’ve turned away from bad things and are now into footy. Everyone wants the number four jersey.

Former Papua New Guinea Kumul Ezekiel Ben, president of the neighbouring Minj rugby league, recalls that JO was a regular at his home ground.

He proudly points to the corner where JO scored his first try for his local team Suwai Storm in a Coca-Cola sponsored Ipatas Cup game some years back.

We are at the bus stop where people from JO‘s Sinasina Yongomugl tribe arrive in Kundiawa.

A community leader from JO‘s village excitedly tells of his famous clansman’s exploits.

The people of Dom and the whole of Simbu are proud of JO he states. A true statement as we experienced last night.

One week later am back in Minj town in neighbouring Jiwaka province. Last night the Storm smashed my team Wests Tigers and JO, king of Kundiawa, bagged a try.

My Yuwai brother chief Willie Kupo – who once fired a bow and arrow on the NRL footy show – whispers ‘bro I think your friend Peter Nime is building a new video house’.

My caddie on the Waghi Valley golf course Willie Kamenu nods and shows me four fingers. Am impressed at his diehard JO fervour and depressed my Tigers got thrashed.

Am flabbergasted by Chief Willie‘s words. But Wara Simbu flows and the tide is always with the legend of JO. And video operator Peter Nime, come rain, JO and storm, licks his lips at the windfall.

So if someone in four kona town shows you four fingers, don‘t worry be happy.

That‘s the new normal in Kundiawa, the astronomical effect of number four on the back of JO!

From Kundiawa the fans expect nothing more than a grand final appearance by their hero JO this season.

Waelo pangra wah!