Wests Tigers’ Tommy Talau on how the brutal training that put him on path to NRL
Wests Tigers winger Tommy Talau is one of rugby league’s rising stars — thanks, in part, to the most notorious punishment his code can dish up.
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Every time Tommy Talau mucked up as a child, the old man made him run Malcolms.
“And I was a naughty kid,” he laughs.
“So every day something went wrong – especially if I got in trouble at school — dad would drag me down to the oval near our house.
“It started when I was nine, maybe 10.
“Dad making me run Malcolms for punishment.”
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Now for those of you whose training regimen tops out at, say, drinking a Diet Coke, know that Malcolms are rugby league’s most notorious workout.
Coined after its creator, renowned English enforcer Malcolm Reilly, the drill sees a player, who starts out on his stomach, jump up and run 10m backwards, then drop to the ground, get up, run 20m forward, drop down, get up, and go back 10m to where they started.
Then, they hit the ground again – all to have completed one Malcolm.
“So it wasn’t fun,” Talau concedes.
“But smartened me up pretty quick.”
Did more than that too.
Still only 20, the Wests Tigers winger has emerged this year among that newest crop of Generation Nexters born in the year 2000.
When Talau was two, Melbourne’s Cameron Smith made his NRL debut.
Then aged three, it was Tigers No.7 Benji Marshall.
“So to be playing alongside Benji now — surreal,” he says.
But while Talau may be new age, he is also undeniably old school.
A kid defined by Malcolms, bloodlines, even a one-way airline ticket from New Zealand.
“And I’ve heard the story, yes,” he says, referencing the tale about his father, Bulldogs favourite Willie Talau, flying into Australia during the 90s on a single ticket paid for by family.
Already, young Willie had written to the Warriors seeking a trial. Yet no reply from the club ever came.
So instead, aged 21, he crossed the ditch with nothing but a dream.
That, and work ethic.
The beginning of what would eventually be a career spanning 275 games with Canterbury, St Helens and Salford, plus 13 Tests for New Zealand and three more with his birth country, Samoa.
“And that story, it sums up who dad is,” Tommy says.
“For as long as I can remember, he’s been all hard work.”
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Which explains those Malcolms.
Same deal the afternoons where Willie Talau would take all three sons to the oval for sessions where “all we seemed to do was run”.
“But that’s what got us here,” continues Tommy, whose older brother Lachlan, 21, is also now graded with Wests Tigers while younger brother Cooper, 19, plays for Canterbury under-20s.
Elsewhere, dad also coached his two eldest boys through both Bulldogs Harold Matthews and SG Ball
Which had its drawbacks, sure.
“But that was bound to happen,” Tommy shrugs.
“Players saying stuff like we were only there because of dad, or that we were living in our old man’s shadow.
“Growing up I heard that a bit.
“But dad had told me there would always be negative people around. I was only young but you deal with it.”
Didn’t he what?
With Talau now on the type of rise that sees your NRL debut come less than a year after playing Australian Schoolboys.
Asked to describe the coaching style of dad, who currently heads St George Illawarra under-20s, Talau says: “I think he’s like Madge”.
Which is some claim.
Especially given the Tigers head coach Michael Maguire is considered the toughest taskmaster anywhere in footy.
“But coming to the Tigers, I was already used to hard work,” Talau says.
“It was an easy transition for me.”
Currently living with mum Kristy, the young winger also credits his old school ethics to a junior footy career which started, aged five, with Blackbrook Royals in England.
While dad was starring with St Helens, little Tommy would spend Saturdays playing on fields often covered in snow or “iced over so bad you got scrapes all over you”.
“I remember crying too,” he laughs. “Because my feet were so cold”.
Which again, not only sees Talau now in the NRL, but continuing with the type of work ethic that, in the past 12 months alone, has seen him add a whopping 10kg of muscle while maintaining that speed made famous at Westfields Sports High.
But as for still doing Malcolms at the park?
“Nah, not anymore,” he laughs. “Although I did do some training with dad at the start of the year, back before everything got crazy.
“And fitness wise, he’s still got.
“Works out every day.
“So when we trained, yeah, he again took me to some dark places.”