Young Tonumaipea was the second Victorian to suit up at NRL level for Melbourne Storm in 2014 and nearly 10 years later he becomes the first to reach 50 NRL matches for the Club.
Like most footy players hailing from the southern state, his journey to the big stage has not been the easiest, but Tonumaipea’s is certainly the road less travelled.
Melbournestorm.com.au: Congratulations – 50 Storm games must feel like a huge achievement.
Young Tonumaipea: Yeah, it's funny. I left Storm four or five years ago and I think I was stuck at 45, so I was a bit bummed there didn't get to 50 before I left [laughs].
[Laughs].
Storm is a big, big part of my life. I've been here since I was a kid and growing up with it, so it's a big achievement for myself to get to the 50th milestone.
It's funny how the world works sometimes.
Absolutely. Just going back to that starting point – what got you into rugby league in the beginning?
Oh funny. I obviously grew up in Melbourne, so the sport I was playing was Aussie Rules, but all my friends played rugby league.
They told me to come and try out for the Victorian state try-outs they had back then so that was my first game I had ever played of rugby league and funny enough, I played not too bad and they picked me and then the rest is history.
I just rose through the ranks, went through SG Ball and the Under-20s for Melbourne and then eventually got to first grade.
And what was the state of Victorian rugby league like at the time?
Oh yeah, to be honest, probably not the best at that time [laughs].
We’d obviously go up and play against the New South Wales and Queensland schools and we would get towled up all the time [laughs].
[Laughs].
Obviously, they've grown up with that sport since they were babies. I only started playing when I was 16, so there's a big period there where I missed rugby league.
So to be able to [play] in Victoria was a big achievement.
As you said before you played in the SG Ball, then NYC – what was that period like transitioning from a junior Victorian system to an NRL system?
I think Melbourne Storm do it really well. The values they incorporate in the first grade they drip feed to the juniors.
Hard work in the first grade is also spoken a lot about in the Under-18s – that was way back when and they still hold those standards today.
So, coming from Victoria, I knew straight away what hard work was because they drilled that into us at a very young age.
And did that help your transition when you did get to make your first-grade debut?
We had a really, really, really good trainer called Adrian Jimenez and yeah, he prepared us for the worst [laughs]. Yeah, he prepared us really well.
When I got to first grade it wasn't like I was in the deep ocean trying to swim, I knew what hard work was by then, I was ready to go and train hard.
What was that moment like scoring your first try at home in front of friends and family at AAMI Park?
Really cool, like when I was growing up as a kid at school all you wanna do is play professional sports, but I didn't know which sport I wanted to play [laughs].
I was one of those kids that signed up to every single sport in primary school and high school, where I was in, I don't know, European handball then Volleyball and whatnot, but to be able to score my first try, and at the very top level, in front of my family it's a great feeling.
It was, yeah, a very proud moment.
What did it mean to you to be the second Victorian to pull on the purple jersey for Melbourne Storm? It’s not many for a Victorian club, but it’s still pretty special.
It's a very big occasion.
I think for us Melburnians in the rugby league area, we're not the strongest, but to be able to be one of the few that have ever come through the system is an achievement in itself.
I know how hard it is to put on a Storm jersey. [Craig Bellamy], he doesn't just give out those jerseys free.
There's a lot of blood, sweat and tears that have to be put in before we receive one of those, so to receive that is a big achievement.
Since you went through the system, we’ve had Victorians Richie Kennar and Dean Ieremia make their debuts for Storm. What does that mean to you to see Victorians come through?
You fully respect someone who's done the same journey as you have.
It's not an easy journey to come through Victoria and eventually don the purple jersey, but when it's done, they earn my respect.
Absolutely.
Sua Fa’alogo is another very good Victorian that I've seen. We’ve played together up at Queensland Cup and he's explosive and I can't wait for his debut, so I'm looking forward to when he plays.
We also have some Junior Academies coming through, so that’s really exciting to see.
Your dad is also coaching at Northern Thunder and with that exposure, what are you seeing coming up through Victorian rugby league at the moment?
Oh yeah [laughs] my dad's coaching at Northern Thunder now because my little brother he's in the Under-14s and my dad did that for myself, he coached my team to get involved.
So sweet!
Yeah [laughs]. There's definitely improvements that I've seen compared to back when I was coming through the juniors.
A lot more participants, way more participants that there were back in the day. Now I’m pretty sure each side almost has two teams. So there's an A&B team, for Under-12s, Under-14s, all of them.
It's really, really good to see some progress there.
Absolutely.
So hopefully with the Academies that are coming through Storm we can get some more younger players, born and bred Melbournians to come and play for the purple jersey.
So back to your career, at this point in your journey you had a fair bit of first-grade experience under your belt and then you took some time off to go to Germany for a Mission. Obviously, both were incredibly important to you, but what was that decision like?
I think it was a time of my life that I was ready to step away from the game for a while.
I’d been in the system since I was 16 years old. I left Storm, I think, around 23 years old, so there's a lot of years there of just pure rugby league.
Waking up in the morning, rugby league. Going to sleep, rugby league.
Fair enough!
Going away and sort of gave me some time to think about what I wanna do and when I came back, I was ready to play again.
It was a really good time in my life and I'm still grateful that I was able to take the opportunity and grateful to [Craig Bellamy] for letting me go follow what I wanted to achieve in life.
Now that I'm back here and I'm also grateful that they've given me the opportunity to come back home.
Did that journey change anything within your mindset to become a better athlete?
I came back a better person, I would say. It opened my mind to life in general.
Being able to see how gifted or how lucky we are to live in this amazing country called Australia. We're very, very blessed, so super grateful for the opportunity I had to go there and to realise what we have over here is amazing.
Coming back from that, you went and played with the Gold Coast Titans for a bit, but what made you want to come back to Victoria?
Obviously, family. Like, the Gold Coast is pretty nice [laughs].
Nice weather [laughs].
Yeah, then I obviously had the opportunity to come back to Melbourne through rugby at the Melbourne Rebels, so I took that up straight away.
I was keen to come home. I'd been away already for a couple of years overseas and then another year away so I was ready to come back and see Mum.
I took the opportunity to come back to Rebels and then obviously Melbourne being the next-door neighbours, it made me miss rugby league and especially the people at the Storm.
It's good to see boys that were still here when I was here, especially the coaching staff, the performance staff as well.
It was an easy transition. It was just like coming back home.
Absolutely. You’ve said before that when you were at the Rebels you sent a text to Craig to see if you could come back. What did you say to make it convincing?
I spoke to Frank [Ponissi] so I just told him I'm keen to come back and see if he would take me.
I think at that time every single person was injured. I think they were almost gonna put Nelson [Asofa-Solomona] at hooker, that's how many people were injured [laughs].
Yeah [laughs]!
So, I think it was just great timing. I thought ‘Ohh these guys are still looking for backs. I'll be keen to come out’.
Frank is real good, he just said, ‘Yeah, of course, there's always room here for you.’
I knew there was a lot of training and hard work to get a spot here. They're very competitive here. So, when I came back I worked really hard to try and find my way back into the team.
You’ve definitely made your way back.
[Laughs].
You’ve had a pretty great run back, but I guess, what’s next for you?
I have a son, so I've got my own little family going now.
It's just pretty much rugby league and then going home and spending a lot of time with my family.
So hopefully I have a few more years here at Storm and I can sort of bring my little fella and start to get him around the Melbourne culture. That's something I'm excited about.
