Australia’s next Jordan Mailata may have already been discovered

NFL recruiter Will Bryce discovered Jordan Mailata in the carpark at a London football field in 2017.

As he watched Mailata’s highlight reel on his phone in the front seat of his car, Bryce could see the promise of the 207cm, 166kg Rabbitohs junior who grew up playing rugby league in Bankstown.

On Monday, Mailata became the first Australian to start and win a Super Bowl. Now Bryce is on the hunt for Australia’s next NFL star.

Only three centimetres shorter and six kilograms lighter than the Philadelphia offensive lineman, 17-year-old Nikau Hepi not only mirrors Mailata’s build, he wears the same number and plays in the offensive line just like his favourite player.

“I picked that number purely for that reason,” Hepi says. “I am inspired a lot by what Jordan does, not just in the football scene but community outreach and stuff like that as well… coming from the same sport as Jordan played and being too big for that as well, the sport has honestly been life-changing.”

Hepi, who was born in New Zealand but moved to Perth when he was five, watched Mailata win the Super Bowl with his teammates in an auditorium on Monday. He is one of seven students selected for Australia’s NFL Academy on the Gold Coast, and Bryce is their coach.

Gold Coast NFL Academy students Hamza El-Ghobashy, Nikau Hepi and their coach Will Bryce, who scouted Jordan Mailata to play for the NFL. Credit: Paul Harris

Opened in September in partnership with the A.B. Patterson College (a private high school), students train before and after school every day and are required to improve their academic scores to increase their chances of securing a college scholarship in the US. The aim is that one of them will become the next Mailata.

“You’re never going to make up the time that their peers in America have played that sport, you’re never going to be as good as them day one, fundamentally, technically,” Bryce said.

“But what you can control is how you practice. Do you finish drills at full speed? Are you putting in the effort? Are you making eye contact with your coach? Can you give a firm handshake? Can you hold a conversation? Do you have good body language? They’re things that they can all control, for Jordan the same way it is for Nikau and the rest of the students.”

Hamza El-Ghobashy is one of the first students to be admitted to the NFL’s Australian academy. Credit: Paul Harris

Three weeks ago, Hepi and six of his compatriots travelled to Florida to train with NFL coaches and recruiters at the IMG Academy which Mailata joined in 2018 as part of the NFL’s International Pathway Program. They will head back to the States later this year for a second trip.

Hepi has become obsessed with American Football, despite knowing nothing about it this time last year. He watches YouTube videos of plays being broken down and is taking extra credits at school in the hope of improving his marks to make him more attractive to a US college.

“University was never on the books for me so coming into this has been a big game changer,” he said.

When the academy opened Mailata was announced as its ambassador. He visited the college last year and met several prospective students including 17-year-old Hamza El-Ghobashy who was playing basketball when Bryce scouted him.

“First I thought, ‘This guy’s [Mailata] massive’ but first impressions I can tell he’s really humble. He acknowledges his background, his culture – Samoa. He’s very humble in that he not only just remembers the current, but he also remembers his reach, where he came from, the struggles he’s been through,” El-Ghobashy said.

Renee Tuafale with her son Jobe Tuafele and Daetyn Dean with his mother Maria Barrett at Sydney airport in 2023.Credit: Nick Moir

El-Ghobashy is of New Zealand and Egyptian heritage. “I look online and I can barely see any NFL Egyptian players in the league. That just [motivates] me to hopefully make it there and represent my country” he said.

“It’s not just to follow Mailata but to create my own pathways where other people in my situation will follow not just Jordan Mailata but me, Nikau and all the other boys.”

For cousins Daetyn Dean and Jobe Tuafale, the NFL dream is already one step closer to becoming a reality.

A year and a half on from accepting scholarships to play high school football at Layton Christian Academy (LCA) in Utah, the pair from Queensland have been offered full scholarships to Tyler Junior College in Texas.

Jobe, who has played both offensive and defensive tackle, said moving to the States to play American football had been a learning curve.

“Playing at the high school level is no joke,” Jobe said. “It was definitely an eye-opener after my first game. I knew I had some hard work to do.”

“I love the challenge and being able to broaden my skill level ... Coach Ray [Stowers] and his team have been instrumental in helping me improve my technique and mental approach to the game and life. They’re always wanting us football boys to strive for better on and off the field.

“One big thing that surprised me is how hard it can be, physically, mentally and some days spiritually, especially living away from my number one support system [family].”

For Dean, the experience to play high school and now college football has been “life-changing”.

“The game is intense, as are the coaches, training, watching our film work, and the atmosphere ... It is completely different to playing in Australia,” he says. “The team experience and competition are on another level.

“The coaching staff has been a great support for us. They are approachable, and you feel at ease taking direction from them. They take us to experience college football, and we travel with them to watch other high school games. On and off the field, they’re direct about what they expect from us, and I try hard and do my best to follow their lead.”

While Australian juniors continue to arrive through the different pipelines of American football, the next Mailata may already be in the Eagles locker room.

After the team’s Super Bowl title on Monday, 22-year-old Australian Laekin Vakalahi handed Mailata Australian and Samoan flags to wear during the post-match celebrations.

Vakalahi joined the Eagles after a friend of the team’s international scout, Chris Naeole, struck up a conversation with his dad on holiday in Hawaii.

Like Mailata, Vakalahi grew up playing rugby league and knew nothing about American football. He joined the Eagles practice squad in 2024 and has already been coined “Mailata 2.0”.