The making of Addin Fonua-Blake ahead of 200th game: Sleeping on the floor, training for free, loss of grandfather
Only 10 years ago, Addin Fonua-Blake was sleeping on his mother’s floor, begging for a chance at an NRL contract. Now bringing up 200 games, the star prop reflects on the impact of family, loss and sacrifice on his rise to the top.
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Hours before thundering the football forward for the Sharks last Friday, Addin Fonua-Blake stood among more than 300 family members at the funeral of his grandfather, Talakai.
Talakai, in the words of Fonua-Blake, taught him what a true man, father and leader looks like.
As Fonua-Blake stood there, the powerhouse Cronulla prop and Tongan International looked at the hundreds of faces around him, many of whom had travelled from far and wide including New Zealand, the United States, Darwin and Brisbane.
He saw the faces of his baby cousins.
His emotional sisters, his reflective uncles and aunties.
As the 29-year-old stood there, he also saw his reason. His why.
“Sitting at the funeral before the game (last Friday night) I saw north of 300 people inside the graveyard and I thought, ‘This is what I do it for’,” said Fonua-Blake.
“This is why I go as hard as I can. For all those people.
“I’m even fighting for the kids in our family that aren’t born yet. I want them to grow up knowing they had an uncle that gave his all.
“I want my aunties, my uncles, my brothers and my sisters, to be all so proud of what I was able to achieve.”
What Fonua-Blake has achieved is entry into the NRL’s prestigious 200-game club, confirmed when he runs out against the Roosters at Sharks Stadium on Friday night.
The big man knows how fortunate he is.
It was only a few years ago that he was sleeping on the floor of his mother’s home in Mascot.
“I didn’t have a quarter of what I have now,” Fonua-Blake said.
“My mum did the best she could and my grandfather and grandmother, I lived with them for a long time (in Mascot).
“The opportunities that rugby league has given me, the things that I give my kids and my family now, I could only ever dream of as a kid.
“The best thing that has ever happened to me, is the gifts that I’m now able to give my family.”
On the field, Fonua-Blake is what you see.
Brutal on the opposition, as much as he is on himself, pushing his body in the middle of the field to 55 minutes on average this season, which has delivered 150 run metres each game, almost 30 tackles, and a total of 54 tackle busts.
Sharks coach Craig Fitzgibbon will happily tell you that ‘AFB’ is more than just your bash-and-barge front-rower.
He is footy-smart, finds weakness in the smaller details of his rivals.
So too, Fitzgibbon says, is he a maturing footballer boasting leadership qualities.
Bump into AFB in and around Shark Park and he shakes your hand, articulates his answers to your questions with depth, and has a cheeky smile that is just wide enough to reveal his shiny gold tooth.
Yet things could’ve been so different for the boy who at the age of 15 spent hours lying on his stomach for a tattooist to ink ‘Fonua-Blake’ across his back.
Two hundred games seemed impossible.
Only 10 years ago, the 120kg prop was sleeping on his mother’s floor, training for free and begging for a chance.
Now he is one of the highest paid props in the game, on a contract paying him more than $1 million a season with the Sharks.
His story of redemption includes stints at the Warriors, after beginning his fledgling years at South Sydney, and Parramatta, St George Illawarra, then Manly.
Flirting with trouble off the field, Fonua-Blake knows how close his career came to never developing into one of the most feared props in the game.
But that too, is also what makes him so proud.
That the Fonua-Blake surname is being cheered, instead of jeered.
“I know that I’ve made some silly decisions. But it shaped the man I am today,” Fonua-Blake said.
“Sometimes you have to go through a bit to become a better man and I definitely have gone through a bit and I’ve come out the other end.
“I feel like it’s a test of my character and it’s my support group that has helped me get through it.
“My wife (Ana), she sees everything I go through and for her to always put her things aside and help me through the rollercoaster that NRL is, I could never thank her enough.
“It could’ve gone either way, but I’m really grateful it went the way it did and I’m about to play my 200th and I want to make it a memorable one.
“I want to do it for my family and show them although some people come from nothing, it doesn’t mean that we have to end with nothing.
“We can always go and get something in life.
“This is the path I’ve chosen to support our family and the way I want to put my last name on the map.’’
From the day he arrived at the Sharks from the Warriors last December, Fonua-Blake has never run from the reason why Fitzgibbon pursued him, which is to lead the Cronulla pack to a premiership.
That quest continues against the Roosters.
“I’m not shying away from any of the hard work that is ahead of us,’’ Fonua-Blake said.
“I know that I’ve been brought here to do a job.
“It’s been an up and down season, not only for myself, but I think for the whole team.
“It’s time now where I’ve got to start leading more with my actions. I’m not the new kid at school anymore.
“I’ve been here long enough, it’s time to put the foot down.
“I’m going to try my best to do all of that and take the boys with me and also lean on them too.”
Originally published as The making of Addin Fonua-Blake ahead of 200th game: Sleeping on the floor, training for free, loss of grandfather
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