Katoa wants to give church-going father a dilemma
George Clarke |
It’s not uncommon for NRL players to go to water when they face Melbourne but the tough love of Sione Katoa’s childhood has ensured the Cronulla winger holds no fear of the Storm.
“I’m more scared of my dad’s hidings than the Melbourne Storm,” Katoa told AAP.
Katoa, one of the game’s most-reserved characters, faces one of the toughest assignments in the NRL when he marks up on Xavier Coates in Friday’s preliminary final.
But if the Sharks can down Melbourne and qualify for next week’s grand final, Katoa will need to conquer another challenge – getting his father Isi to skip Sunday service and watch him in the flesh rather than on TV.
“He will usually miss games, especially on Sundays because he will always go to church,” Katoa said.
“He goes to church every Sunday and hardly comes to watch me.
“When he does get a chance to come watch me it means so much to me.
“He came to his first finals game this year (against the Sydney Roosters) and I was so happy to see him and bring him into the sheds.”
Katoa has the number 676 – Tonga’s international code – tattooed on his right hand, in a nod to his parents, who migrated from the island nation to New Zealand and then settled in Sydney.
Isi would work long hours as forklift driver in a warehouse to put food on the table and was keen to impress the value of money on his children.
“I remember some stuff that he did for us as a family that was massive for us,” Katoa said.
“Trying to look after my little family now, money is not as (hard to come by) as it was for him.
“One of my first paychecks for Harold Matthews (U16s), I took the whole thing and spent it in a week on my friends and junk food – I loved potato scallops when I was in school, I’d eat that and fish cocktail for breakfast.
“(When dad found out) I got a big hiding. I don’t want to explain it, everyone knows what an Islander hiding is like.”
Isi also introduced Katoa to one of his great passions – fishing.
The Sharks winger has a YouTube channel where he documents his biggest catches, which include a 60kg big eye tuna that took Katoa close to three hours to reel in.
Katoa intends to fish in Fiji over the summer but would love to put his off-season plans on hold for a further week by helping Cronulla defeat Melbourne.
“Beating Canberra in Canberra last week, that was up there as one of my favourite wins,” Katoa said.
“That (beating Melbourne) is what we want to do. For the last couple of years of finals footy we had just fallen short and using that as motivation definitely helps.”
AAP
