Meet Joe Suaalii: The yin and yang of NSW’s $4.8m code-hopping chameleon

Trent Robinson has seen the pressure get to Joseph Suaalii.

Just not the expectation you might expect shouldered by one of the most talked about figures both in league and rugby, in an age of wall-to-wall coverage and social media commentary, where everything from his form, to his future, to his loyalty is questioned.

“What’s got to him at times is that weight of his own expectations on himself,” Robinson says of the Blues’ rookie centre.

“He’s felt that weight of what he wants out of himself at different times, because he cares. His ability to not be so harsh or hard on himself, that’s been a development for him this year.

“Those personal expectations are so high and when he hasn’t lived up to what he wanted, he just keeps pushing and driving.”

Pressure, as Australian cricketing great and World War II fighter pilot Keith Miller famously said, “is a Messerschmitt up your arse”, not anything to be found on a sporting field.

But sign a $4.8 million Rugby Australia deal, in clandestine circumstances that at the time angered some powerful figures at the Roosters, and plenty of that pressure is of your own making too.

Working through Suaalii’s own expectations has been a key conversation for he and his Sydney Roosters’ coach Robinson.

Suaalii is overwhelmingly philosophical about it all, particularly his seven-figure shift to rugby union and, already, whether he returns to rugby league afterwards.

People need stories to fill newspapers. He’s doing something different. And different makes people talk.

“He’s a weird dude sometimes, does some weird things,” good mate, mentor and now-former Roosters roommate Joey Manu laughs.

“You reckon he’s quiet? Nah man, Joey’s loud as anything. He does enough talking for him and Daniel Tupou [his left-edge partner this year and roommate on away trips] combined.

“Me and my missus we’d wonder about him sometimes, living on his own [in Double Bay], we’d worry about him.

“I’ll be asking him ‘come around to mine and hang out’, he’s always hanging by himself, but when you’re with him he’s loud, playing his music. If he’s up – and he’s always up early – you’re up too. It took me a while to realise that’s just who he is.”

Since he burst onto the scene as a schoolboy rugby star reporters have clamoured for interviews and insight into a rare footballing talent. Suaalii has always been unfailingly polite, but unafraid to repeatedly knock back requests too as the Roosters shielded him from the spotlight.

He is more independent than most 20-year-olds. Definitely more than most 20-year-old NRL players.

When critics questioned whether his call to play for Samoa at the 2022 World Cup was motivated by playing fullback and a potential payday, he was being included in the team’s leadership group before even playing a Test match.

After that tournament finished in November he went backpacking solo through Japan, relishing “being out of my comfort zone” even if “you do get lonely, but it comes with freedom”.

By Christmas, he was officially bestowed the matai title of a Samoan chief, at age 19, by the two villages of his family in the island nation.

Elders told Suaalii that it was especially rare to be anointed so young, but that it was rare to meet a teetotaller teen with both the world at his feet and convictions as strong as his, too.

“I’m pretty independent, people notice it and mention it, but I’m happy doing things solo,” Suaalii says.

“I’ve got a big family and I’ve always got their support and my loved ones looking out for me.

“But over the last few years, I’m only 20 still, I think I’ve grown from a kid into a man.

“You grow up in different parts of life, different aspects and I think my footy’s grown up. I’ve seen more things in the world and I’ve enjoyed that too.

“I feel like I’ve been in newspapers since I was 14 years old. Coming into footy at 16, 17 it felt like my name was in the paper quite a bit.

“But it’s kind of helped me, steadied me, having to learn about that. It’s pushed me to put my head down and work hard, do my own thing. It’s all helped me get to this point of playing an Origin and putting on a Blues jumper, it’s been a goal since I was a four-year-old kid.

“Everything in my life, I’ve learnt a lot from it all, adapted and changed because that’s what you do, right? But it’s made me work hard. That’s always been my best attribute.”

Suaalii’s talent had first Rugby Australia, the Rabbitohs and Roosters squabbling for his services, then Australia and Samoa, then rugby and the Roosters again.

“He came in with an NRL body at 17, I’m still working on mine,” fellow teen prodigy Sam Walker jokes. “He’s one of the most physically gifted human beings I’ve ever seen.”

Talent is one thing. Making the most of it is Suaalii’s challenge.

“People can work hard when they’re on the training field or when they’re in the gym,” Robinson says.

“But they don’t work hard when they’re stretching, eating, or preparing mentally. Joey, he works hard from the moment he gets up in the morning to when he goes to bed. He’s done it since he was a kid. It’s not just footy, it’s all aspects of his life.”

When Suaalii mentions adapting to different positions and scenarios, it’s where Robinson is proudest, his teammates take notice the most, and this Origin debut comes.

Michael Maguire has named him at centre following a steep defensive improvement this season for the Roosters. Queensland will duly cross-examine that on a slippery Accor surface.

“But when he gets his decision-making and defensive reads right, you see him take confidence out of it,” Walker says. “You see him going after the opposition centre or winger, looking to dominate his man.”

Just as Suaalii seems ready to really begin dominating the 13-man code though, he’ll be off to the next challenge.

Nick Politis “says all the time” – Suaalii’s words – that he’ll be back at the Roosters once his rugby contract finishes in 2027.

Suaalii is adamant he’s Waratahs and Wallabies-bound come November, despite regular rumours rugby’s perilous finances could bring the deal undone.

He’s also adamant that while he treasures the club that “has helped raise me”, he hasn’t set any return in stone and hasn’t looked that far ahead.

“I think he’s just used to it all now,” Manu says. “People always asking. Some people write him off. Some bag him. Other people pump him up a bit, that’s not easy when you’re young.

“But he knows where his head’s at and what he wants to do. I think he just wants to be a good person and just wants to be himself.”

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