NRL or Wallabies? Dying dad’s final words sealed Nelson Asofa-Solomona’s future
The last words of his dying dad are motivating 135kg Storm giant Nelson Asofa-Solomona in Friday’s NRL preliminary final against the Penrith Panthers.
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Nelson Asofa-Solomona is primed for his boxing debut and the last words of his dying dad are motivating the 135kg Storm giant to deliver the knockout punch to Penrith’s ‘Three-Peat’ title dream on Friday night.
Asofa-Solomona has opened up about how close he came to defecting to rugby union and wearing Wallaby gold ahead of Melbourne’s grand-final qualifier against the Panthers at Sydney’s Accor Stadium.
The sight of Australia’s dismal 22-15 loss to Fiji at the rugby World Cup was another timely reminder of the brute power the monstrous Asofa-Solomona would have injected to the Wallabies’ forward pack.
If his father, Vasa, had his way, Asofa-Solomona could have easily embarked on a code switch from the Storm to the Wallabies.
Asofa-Solomona senior died last year and on his deathbed, he told the Melbourne prop that while he would love to see him play rugby for the All Blacks or Australia, ultimately he wanted the best for his son.
Big Nelson chose to ink a four-year extension with the Storm until the end of 2027 and is now Melbourne’s great 200cm hope of denying Penrith a hat-trick of titles with a preliminary final boilover.
“Rugby was definitely a consideration,” Asofa-Solomona said.
“Losing my father was a massive thing in my life at the time and it influenced my decision with football.
“I spoke to dad before he passed away.
“He had given me his blessing to do what made me happy, even if that meant playing for the Wallabies.
“I thought about going back to rugby, but at the end of the day, I couldn’t see myself in a yellow Wallabies jumper.
“I am a proud Kiwi and I couldn’t look myself in the mirror knowing that if I put on that Wallabies jumper, I would have to face the All Blacks jumper and that was a line-in-the-sand moment.
“The thing I envisioned was watching the haka in front of me. I would have got emotional and as much as it would have been great to play against the best in the All Blacks and test myself against the best, at the end of the day my heart is with the Kiwis.
“It would not have sat well with me for the rest of my life.”
Vasa’s death also tipped the scales in the Storm’s favour.
Asofa-Solomona had brief talks with the All Blacks to represent his country of birth, but as he grieved over the loss of his old man, the 27-year-old wanted to stay close to family and repay the faith of the Storm.
“The All Blacks showed a bit of interest and then it wasn’t until the new All Blacks coach, Scott Robinson, came to one of our training sessions one day and we were talking about rugby union,” he said.
“I asked if he saw an opportunity for me. He was open and honest. He said, ‘If you were a bit younger, say 21, I would say definitely come over and have a look’.
“But he was letting me know there’s a lot of props coming through and it would be hard to change to a different code and try and succeed, especially with the depth in the All Blacks.
“When he said that, I immediately took it as a challenge.
“My whole career I have had to prove people wrong, but I weighed up the pros and cons and leaving my family in Melbourne was a big thing.
“I lost my father and when that happens, you want to keep your family close and make sure they are OK and spend quality time with them, because time goes quick.
“I also wanted to give more to the Storm because they’ve done so much for me in my NRL career.
“I’ve built some incredible memories with the boys at Melbourne.”
Six days after this year’s NRL grand final, Asofa-Solomona will jump into the ring for the first time in what will represent a frightening sight for his rival, Dolphins prop Jarrod Wallace.
The Storm have given permission for Asofa-Solomona to fight and the Melbourne monster wants to mix skill with the type of heavyweight knockout power the Panthers pack will confront on Friday night.
“I don’t want to make a mockery of the sport,” he said.
“I’m passionate about boxing. I don’t want to look for that one knockout punch, I want to showcase some skills as well.
“It’s a bit of a now-or-never thing. I can’t wait to get in the ring. The NRL calendar is very busy and this event is the perfect opportunity for me to test myself in the ring.
“I admire what Paul Gallen did. It’s not easy to be successful in two sports. I heard he made a killing out of boxing, something like $22 million after his NRL career.
“I don’t know if that’s an accurate figure, but hats off to him if he made that money out of boxing.
“I definitely need more experience in the ring before I consider taking Gallen on in the ring, but right now my total focus is the Storm and hopefully we can go all the way.”
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Originally published as NRL or Wallabies? Dying dad’s final words sealed Nelson Asofa-Solomona’s future
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