Mitchell Moses on premierships, the curse and becoming a dad
Parramatta half Mitchell Moses and Penrith star Jarome Luai have both grown their families by one – just days before going head to head in the NRL Grand Final. See the new pictures.
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Parramatta halfback Mitchell Moses walked from interview to interview on Monday with a gift-wrapped package in his hands.
It was a present from an Eels fan and a reminder of the most remarkable week of his rugby league career.
Only hours before Parramatta’s preliminary final win over North Queensland on Friday night, Moses became a father for the first time. Earlier that week, he had buried his grandmother, who had lost a long battle with dementia.
Moses rightly described the week as a rollercoaster.
He went from the lows of saying goodbye to one of his biggest fans to welcoming his daughter into the world. He topped it off by leading the Eels to their first grand final since 2009.
One of Moses’s grand final opponents, Penrith five-eighth Jarome Luai, also welcomed a baby into the world this week.
Luai has welcomed a little girl called Halo – just days before he lines up in the NRL grand final. Luai’s partner, Bailey Paris Toleafoa, gave birth on Monday to Halo, who is the couple’s third child.
He posted a heartfelt photo of the baby wrapped up snuggly in a pink-striped blanket and posted a love heart underneath it.
“My rock – another beautiful baby girl,” Toleafoa commented on the photo.
The Panthers’ official account wrote on social media: “Congratulations to Jarome and Bailey on welcoming little Halo into their beautiful family”.
The birth of Luai’s third child comes just six days before he will play in Penrith’s third-straight grand final as the club seeks to win back-to-back premierships by defeating Parramatta at Accor Stadium on Sunday.
And fortunately Luai and Toleafoa already know the ropes in dealing with tiny tots, already raising their two other children, Akira, 10 months and Izzy, 4.
The third addition to their family is bound to keep the couple’s hands full in the lead up to the big game, but Luai has said he knows how to handle his nerves.
“I’m pretty chill to be honest, especially with big games, my missus is having our third baby (on Monday) so I’m looking forward to that,” Luai had told the ABC before Halo’s birth.
“So that takes away a bit of that emotion as well.
“I’m looking forward to my next baby girl, but God willing she arrives safely and I can just focus on that right now”.
MOSES: “THIS IS ALL I WANT TO DO”
You only had to be at the club’s Kellyville training base on Monday to get a sense of what it means to the Parramatta faithful, who have waited 36 long years to win another premiership.
They came out in their thousands to watch the players go through their paces. Some had taken the day off work. At one stage a fence collapsed as fans pushed forward to get a selfie or an autograph with the players.
No prizes for guessing who was the favourite. Moses has been often maligned since his move from the Wests Tigers five years ago, but the critics have gone quiet over the latter stages of this season.
Moses came to Parramatta to win a premiership and he now has the Eels on the verge of a drought-breaking victory,
“This is all you want to do – win a comp,” Moses said.
“This is why I came to the club – I wanted to win games and I wanted to win a comp. Anyone playing rugby league, this is all you want to do.
“It is all I have wanted to do since I was young so hopefully I can get it done.”
BECOMING A DAD
If things had gone to plan, Moses and his partner Bri would have been welcoming their first child into the world this week. As is often the case with child birth, things didn’t go to plan.
Bri started getting contractions last Thursday and Moses had to watch the birth on his phone, FaceTiming the hospital room in the hours leading up to the game against the Cowboys.
“We kind of had a plan that it was going to be this week – she was due this week,” Moses said.
“It was about an hour before we had to get on the bus. I was out the back over the lake just facetiming. I had my AirPods in. It was a pretty special moment.
“I wasn’t much help – my mum and her mum were there.”
Five-eighth Dylan Brown added: “I remember getting treatment and I saw him there sitting on his phone, waiting for a call.
“I was nervous and I didn’t have a baby on the way. I couldn’t imagine how he was feeling going into the game.”
Moses has spent the days since returning from Townsville making up for lost time.
“She has been good – I have changed a nappy,” Moses said.
“It was a special moment. I did’t really know what to expect having my first child. In the scenario it did take a lot out of me.
“I didn’t know how to handle it. Everything was thrown at me at once. I am glad the boys had my back on the weekend.”
HIS GRANDMOTHER
Moses had the worst possible start to last week. It began when he and his family had to say goodbye to his grandmother Barbara Elias – the mother of his uncle and Balmain legend Ben Elias – after a long battle with dementia.
Moses was given the morning off to attend the funeral but he had precious little time to dwell on her loss as he prepared for Saturday night’s preliminary final against the Cowboys.
“It was a rollercoaster of emotions and I am glad it is over really,” Moses said.
“It was pretty hard to deal with. There were a lot of ups and downs, obviously with what happened at the start of the week with my family.
“We lost my grandmother last week so we had to lay her to rest on Monday. That was kind of a celebration of her life. She did so much for our family.
“To see how much my mum and my aunties looked after her – they looked after her 24-7, for the last five years she had bad dementia – to see how much it impacted them was pretty hard on my and all our family and all the grandchildren.
“She stayed at my mum and dad’s for the last five or six years – my mum was looking after her full-time. It was a tough job to do.
“What they did was amazing.”
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Originally published as Mitchell Moses on premierships, the curse and becoming a dad
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