Payne Haas: Rise of NRL superstar including family tragedy and off-field dramas
Payne Haas is still just 23 but carries heavy burdens on and off the football field. From family heartache to NRL stardom, this is the story of his rise. SPECIAL REPORT
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He’s the million-dollar talent who carries heavy burdens on and off the field.
At just 23 young father Payne Haas has became the face of a Broncos side that underwent its biggest transformation in its three-decade NRL history.
Off the field, he has overcome personal tragedy, family struggles and a growing list of incidents – not all self-inflicted – to earn a reputation as a man who comes with baggage.
This is the story of Haas’ progression from teen prodigy to rugby league star.
EARLY YEARS
Born in Newcastle on December 2, 1999, Haas is of Filipino and Samoan descent, and is
the nephew of former Knights and Sharks NRL player Mark Taufua.
One of 10 children to dad Gregor and mum Joan, Haas played his junior rugby league with the Woodberry Warriors in the Newcastle competition.
At age 13 his family moved to a seven-acre property in the Gold Coast hinterland, where he attended famed rugby league nursery Keebra Park State High.
“Payne always loved his football. I remember even as a little boy, the only way to get him to sit still was to switch on the TV and put the rugby league on,” Gregor said in 2018.
“ … Payne has been training for the NRL since he was 12.
“I’ve measured our driveway and it’s exactly 350m long. Well, Payne would run up and down it constantly.
“Sometimes he would do 30 and 40 laps of the driveway to make sure his fitness would never let him down.”
FAMILY HEARTBREAK
It was the tragedy that defined Haas’ life.
Haas’ father, Gregor, recalled the terror of his best mate losing control and smashing their family vehicle into a tree near Canberra about two decades ago.
Gregor’s friend died in the crash. Gregor’s wife, Joan, was sitting in the back seat carrying their unborn third child in her womb.
Their second oldest child, Chace, was five months old, strapped into a baby seat.
The whiplash from the collision snapped his spinal cord and he was left quadriplegic. He passed away unexpectedly of respiratory failure in 2020, aged 21.
“That’s why I have got the name Payne,” Haas said in 2018.
“My mum named me Payne because she was pregnant with me at the time of the crash. She felt I was lucky to be alive after the pain we went through as a family.
“I have my football heroes like Petero Civoniceva (Broncos front-row legend), but my real hero is my older brother, Chace.
“He was two years old when he went into a wheelchair and he gives me strength every day to keep on going.”
With Chace requiring daily treatment during his life, Gregor quit his job as a cook in the Australian Army to care for their son.
Haas in August 2020 expressed his sadness after the passing of his brother.
“Confused atm but I know you won’t want me down, just going to soldier on till my heart stops like you did! I love you forever my best friend, my role model, but most importantly my big brother,” Payne said on Instagram.
NRL BREAKTHROUGH
After starring for Keebra Park, Haas was in 2016 selected for the Australian Schoolboys side, and – amid a flurry of 10 NRL offers plus NFL interest – it led to a three-year contract with the Brisbane Broncos.
In 2018 it was revealed how the Gold Coast Titans messed up their bid to lock in the superstar talent who was right on their doorstep.
Such was his progression that his all-star showings for the Broncos’ National Youth Competition led to his first true brush with fame in 2017.
Haas was dubbed Andrew Fifita’s “clone” as Queensland’s State of Origin team ran an opposed training session against the teen in a bid to combat the big-bodied NSW star.
With nine tries in 18 NYC games Haas was picked in the Team of the Year in 2017.
A year later, after impressing for the Broncos’ Queensland Cup feeder side Wynnum Manly Seagulls, Haas was inevitably called up for his NRL debut in Round 8 of the 2018 season against the Rabbitohs.
Commentator Phil Gould immediately hailed his debut as “the birth of a superstar”, though Haas would only play two more games that season before suffering a shoulder injury.
In July 2018 the Broncos re-signed Haas on a six-year contract.
After converting to Islam in early 2019, Haas – while fasting for his first Ramadan – scored the first try of his NRL career against the Roosters in Round 10, 2019.
On his way to NRL Rookie of the Year honours, the teen was then selected for NSW for the opening game of the 2019 State of Origin series, the second most inexperienced player at that level with only 10 first grade games.
Despite Brisbane’s swift and sorry finals exit that season, Haas was named at prop in the Australia PM XIII side before making his Test debut at the end of the season.
He has since progressed to become a NSW Origin regular and widely regarded as the best player in the Broncos squad, claiming four straight Paul Morgan Medals.
In April 2023 it was revealed the Australian Rugby Union had an interest in signing Haas in what would be a dramatic code switch.
STARTING A FAMILY
Haas and his partner Leilani Mohenoa welcomed the couple’s first child, a daughter named Lalita, on May 16, 2021.
Announcing the news to Instagram, Haas shared a photo holding his newborn daughter to his chest.
“Welcome to the world my beautiful girl I love you and your mum dearly I’ll do anything for the both of you,” he wrote.
Mohenoa added: “On May 16 at 4:35am, our baby girl ‘Lalita’ entered this world. You are just the most sweetest & special girl. We love you so much.”
The post was met with well wishes from Haas’ Broncos and NSW teammates including Kotoni Staggs, David Fifita, Nathan Cleary and Josh Addo-Carr.
In February 2021 Haas spoke of his excitement at becoming a father.
“This is a year where I want to focus on being the best person I can be, not just a football player,” he said.
“I can’t wait to be a dad and I certainly want to be the best role model I can be. I am also a bit nervous at being a parent as it comes with big responsibilities.
“I want to be a good partner to Leilani and a great dad to my newborn baby.”
In March 2023 Haas and Mohenoa became engaged after a beach proposal.
CONTRACT WRANGLES
It was the on-again off-again contract saga that engulfed Brisbane’s NRL season.
Haas, seeking a bigger payday despite owning a $3 million deal, requested a release from his Broncos contract in May 2022.
The approach was quickly rejected by club officials and led to a remarkable response from club fans.
As Haas took his first hit-up against the Titans at Suncorp Stadium on May 26, supporters booed the one-time favourite in stunning scenes.
“I’m usually not one to get rattled, but when I heard the boos coming out tonight (and) when I got onto the ball it rattled me a bit,” Haas told Nine after the game.
“But I had to compose myself and just stay in the game and do my job for the team.”
That incident, followed by coach Kevin Walters’ declaration that the club won’t consider releasing Haas, ultimately led to the prop’s confirmation in September that he wasn’t going anywhere.
“I have never said I wanted out of the club,” Haas, set to earn $848,000 a year in 2023, told couriermail.com.au.
“I love the Broncos, I love the people here, I have made lifelong mates.
“I am still contracted here until 2024 so I am still here and I want to do well at the Broncos.
“I have been here through the rough times and I can see the good times coming.”
RIVALRIES AND CONTROVERSIES
Battle with Tino
In a heavyweight showdown that could last for another decade, young firebrands Haas and Tino Fa’asuamaleaui went toe-to-toe in Game 2 of the 2020 Origin series.
Brisbane’s NSW prop and Gold Coast’s Queensland rival stole the spotlight amid a melee at Suncorp Stadium.
It came three years after the pair first clashed in an under-18 interstate contest that led to a claim “Tino sat him (Haas) on his arse”.
“Payne was the big dog at schoolboy level so Tino took him on — that’s the competitor he is,” Fa’asuamaleaui’s manager Simon Mammino said in 2020.
“Tino first came up against Payne 12 months earlier (in 2016) in a Queensland Schoolboys state carnival at Pizzey Park and Tino went after him.”
However Haas laughed off the assertion: “I have actually hardly versed him growing up.
“He is a year younger than me.
“I don’t know where that came from, whether it is his agent trying to ride my coat-tail or whatever.”
Haas and Fa’asuamaleaui were both sin-binned and then fined $750 by the NRL match review committee for their Origin biff.
“I just saw red. It was a bit dumb of me to keep carrying on like that. I should have left it as it was,’’ Haas said at the time.
Despite it all, the pair have insisted they are great mates off the field.
Integrity unit investigation
On February 19, 2019 Haas was fined $10,000 and stood down by the Broncos for refusing to co-operate with an NRL integrity unit investigation.
Haas missed the first four games of the season after being slapped with a club-imposed Broncos ban following his role in two off-field incidents that involved family members, between September and November 2018.
One was an alleged personal dispute involving family members.
The other related to a brawl at a Queensland Rugby League semi-final that involved his brother and sisters.
While Haas was not directly involved, he was in close quarters to a savage scuffle which led to police attending the scene.
After fielding complaints, the Broncos reported the matters to the NRL integrity unit, which begun a formal investigation in November 2018.
Integrity unit officers attempted to interview Haas. When the Broncos rookie refused to comply, Brisbane threw the book at the 117kg front-rower for failing to adhere to the club’s values and behavioural standards.
Haas was not guilty of any offence and was not subject to any police investigation.
Police run-in
On January 16, 2021 Haas pleaded guilty in Tweed Heads Local Court to two counts of intimidating police during a confrontation at Jack Evans Boat Harbour while he was with his pregnant partner Leilani Mohenoa.
The 21-year-old giant was given a two-year good behaviour order but no conviction was recorded.
A statement of police facts tendered to the court revealed that when asked for ID by Senior-Constable Anthony Attard, Haas became aggressive.
“F..k the ID,” he told the officer.
“I don’t need to give you ID.”
Police again tried to reason with Haas but he responded: “You got a badge on and you think you’re a tough f..ing c...t’.
“Let’s get the f..k out of here. Just taser me you dumb c..t.”
On February 8 Haas was handed a $50,000 fine by the NRL and a three-match suspension as further punishment for intimidating police.
Driving ban
On April 15, 2019 Haas was fined $500 and lost his licence for six months after pleading guilty to driving offences.
Haas was caught driving while using his mobile phone and without a licence in Ipswich in March 2019, claiming he chose to drive because he had no other way to get to Broncos training.
Ipswich Magistrates Court heard on March 1 at about 12.40pm Haas pulled up to a red light in his suburb Redbank Plains and was scrolling through his phone when police pulled up alongside his white Land Rover.
He was pulled over but could not produce a licence.
The court heard he had lost his learner licence due to demerit points.
“Normally his de facto wife takes him to training,” his lawyer Campbell MacCullum told the court.
“She unfortunately couldn’t that day. He exhausted all avenues apart from, of course, calling a taxi.”
Fight video
Haas and Broncos teammate Albert Kelly were on April 3, 2022 involved in a drunken scuffle outside of a Sydney hotel, with the moment caught on video.
Haas was fined $10,000 due to his previous indiscretions, while Kelly escaped with a $5,000 fine. Both were suspended for one match.
Haas later said after the incident he didn’t believe the punishment was justified.
“It was a silly way to react and I called Alby the following morning to clear the air,” Haas said.
“Acting with any level of violence is not the way to sort something out and I told Alby that, and we have both moved on from it.
“I apologise for my actions and will work hard to be better.”
Insta outrage
Haas made headlines in September 2022 when he shared a shocking Instagram post written by his uncle.
The post which could be viewed on Haas’s public Instagram story, is a photo of him next to his uncle Mark Tafua surrounded by edited captions saying “Aiga forever,” “FTS” and “FTP,” followed by the words “stay staunch, love you sis”.
The captions have raised eyebrows among the NRL stars 89,000 followers, with the acronyms assumed to represent “f*** the system,” and “f*** the police.”
FAMILY LOYALTY
Family has always meant the world to Haas, despite a string of public incidents involving members in recent years.
His mother, Uiatu “Joan” Taufua, was in December 2022 involved in a car crash that led to three deaths.
She was subsequently charged with three counts of manslaughter and dangerous operation of a motor vehicle, evading police and driving without a driver’s licence.
On March 9, 2023 she was also charged with drink driving.
Haas took personal leave from Broncos training early in the year but returned on January 16.
In May 2023 Haas spoke of what the incident had meant for the family.
“I actually spoke to her (on Sunday) on the phone and told her the news,” Haas said.
“It is good to hear from my mum. I do love her dearly. She was happy. She makes sure I stay grounded and tells me how it is.”
The Haas family took another hit in May 2023 with younger brother Zeda, 19, lucky to survive a suspected overdose of the powerful drug GHB, or Fantasy, on May 14.
In October 2022 Haas’ father Gregor defended the family’s reputation as troublemakers.
“Look, people will have their opinions, but I know we’re not like that as a family,” he said.
“I know we’ve made mistakes. I can’t sit here and pretend we’re perfect.
“No family is perfect and we’re certainly not perfect.
“I used to get annoyed at first about what people would say and think about us, but now I’m OK with it. It’s each to their own.
“With social media, there is a lot more focus, particularly on someone like Payne who is an NRL player, but we love each other and that’s all that matters.
“We’ve had our tough times as a family.”
In April 2023 Gregor opened up further about the family’s struggles.
In September 2022 Larry Taufua, the uncle of Haas, was banned by the NSW Rugby League judiciary for 12 weeks after running 30m to throw a punch during a league match.
In a moment captured on video, the son-in-law of 2GB broadcaster Ray Hadley, Brad Clark, was king-hit in a shocking incident that forced a game to be abandoned.
Dora Creek’s Clark reported the incident that occurred in the Hunter and Newcastle community competition match to police but decided against pressing charges.
The two major players involved in the fight, Larry and Mark Taufua, are the brothers of Haas’ mother, and captain-coaches of Woodberry.
Originally published as Payne Haas: Rise of NRL superstar including family tragedy and off-field dramas
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