Teacher getting close to NRL dream

MAKE WAY: Tokoroa's Jeremy Siulepa has worked his way into the Newcastle Knights set-up this year. He is pictured playing for Pacific last season at Puketawhero Park in Rotorua. PHOTO/BEN FRASER A - 250813BF18

Injuries no issue in making Knights' reserve team

Tokoroa's Jeremy Siulepa always taught his students to follow their dreams.

The passionate rugby league player has worked his way into the Newcastle Knights set-up this year, playing all four games for their reserve team in the VB NSW Cup.

He earned selection into the team after someone saw his YouTube video, which he made for his students at Te Wananga o Aotearoa in Tokoroa.

The motivational video was titled "How Bad Do You Want Your Dream" and followed his journey from a bad spate of injuries to playing for the Waicoa Bay Stallions on live television.

After watching the video online, a rugby league club called the Maitland Pickers, near Newcastle, asked the back rower to play for them.

While in Australia, Siulepa went along to an open training session with the Newcastle Knights and earned selection into their reserve team.

His partner, Maine Natua, who lives in Tokoroa with their two sons, said Siulepa was simply loving it.

"He is just buzzing out, he is getting to play with a lot of people he has looked up to," she said. "He is just enjoying the opportunity to make the most of it."

She said he loved mentoring young students at Wananga and it was a tough decision to move to Australia to try and make it in rugby league.

The Newcastle Knights reserve team have a bye this weekend but have won three of their first four games.

"It is funny, some of the players he plays against, he is pretty much star struck when he goes in for a tackle."

Siulepa, 25, played for Pacific Rugby League Club last season, helping them win the Bay of Plenty premier competition.

Interestingly, he missed most of the season with an ankle injury and broken ribs. But the matches he did manage towards the end of the season earned him a chance to play for the Bay of Plenty representative side and the Waicoa Bay Stallions team, in the New Zealand domestic competition.

His motivational video, which he made late last year, ended with him scoring a try for the Stallions on live television.

These are the words he used at the start of the video:

"Ever since I was little I only had one dream, to play one game of rugby league on TV. But I was cursed with injuries. Two knee reconstructions, a damaged shoulder, broken ankle and cracked ribs.

"Injury after injury and my dream was slowly drifting away. But that didn't stop me, it made me stronger."

Pacific coach Paniora Daniels, who coached Siulepa last season and worked with him at Wananga, said he had a great training ethic.

"He is hard to stop. He is really strong and has good footwork and a good fend. If he can get on the outside [of a player] he is away," Daniels said.

If Siulepa makes the NRL in the future he will be the third player from Pacific to do so in recent years, with Isaac John playing at Penrith and Zane Tetevano at Newcastle.

Siulepa's mum and dad still live in Tokoroa, where they pastor a church