League: A man on a mission after lost years

Paki Afu has reignited his NRL dream by signing for the Roosters at the age of 24. Photo / Michael Craig

A born-again rugby league late bloomer is tantalisingly close to realising his NRL dream.

Early last month, scouts from the Roosters turned up at Walter Massey Park in South Auckland for a Fox Memorial match between the Pt Chevalier Pirates and Mangere East Hawks.

They were acting on a tip, to check out the Pirates No 12. That, in itself, is not that unusual, except the No 12 was almost 25 and had given up on his NRL dream years ago.

A man who, after some early promise, had turned his back on the game in 2011 to complete a Mormon mission. A man who weighed 130kg last year and had spent almost three years away from the sport. A man who was getting up at 5am every morning for his job at the freezing works, and taking night classes as he plotted a business future.

This is the extraordinary tale of Paki Afu. He's the local boy made good, who has come back from some "lost years" to have a shot at the NRL.

"My dad was speechless when I told him the Roosters were interested," Afu says. "He thought I was joking, until the whole family got together and I told them the Roosters were coming over to sign me."

"What Paki has done doesn't happen," says Pt Chevalier coach Grant Pocklington. "NRL clubs sign teenagers from here and that's usually where it stops. But I haven't seen anyone doing what he has been doing in the Fox [Memorial] week in, week out for a long time."

Afu grew up in Onehunga - "around the corner from Mt Smart Stadium" - and completed his league education at St Paul's College alongside Sosaia Feki and Lousi brothers Sione and Sam. They won the 2007 national secondary schools competition and the 17-year-old was whisked to Sydney by the Bulldogs.

Afu spent three years playing NYC for Canterbury. There were good moments - he was selected for Tonga in 2009 and was part of the Bulldogs team that reached the preliminary final in 2010 - but the teenager never reached his potential.

"I went off the rails a bit," he says. "Part of it was being homesick. I was distracted by other things going on outside football, hanging out with the wrong crowd and focusing more on the social side of things."

He signed to play for Wentworthville in the New South Wales Cup at the end of the 2010 season but less than six months later pulled the pin, opting to go on a Mormon mission.

"My league career was on hold but probably I knew it was over," Afu says. "I had always promised I would use my talents to serve the Lord."

Afu was sent to the Philippines, serving in the central region of the Visayan Islands. Life was basic and extremely disciplined. He slept on a thin mattress on the floor and woke at 6am every morning to complete a few hours of study before hitting the streets from 10am until nightfall. That was the routine, except for 'prep day', when they washed their clothes and cleaned their apartment ("the only time off was when we slept").

Afu was allowed a phone call home each year on Mother's Day and Christmas Day and could email friends and family for an hour once a week. Rice was the staple diet, along with anything else they could grow in the gardens outside their accommodation. It wasn't an easy life, especially in tropical conditions, but it was a humbling experience and, as he walked the streets, he encountered an incredible generosity of spirit among locals.

"A lot of people had nothing but would give everything," he says. "I went there to change people's lives but I didn't realise it was changing my life for the better as well."

Afu returned to New Zealand in March last year. He was almost 130kg but was convinced by his younger brother and father to play league again, turning out for the Otahuhu Leopards (his junior club) last season. He then switched to Pt Chev, and through a club contact spent much of the summer training with the Warriors NSW Cup team under Pirates legend Stacey Jones.

"I started to lose weight [he's now down to 108kg] and get my confidence back," says Afu, who will turn 25 in September. "That is when I thought maybe I can give it a go again."

Word soon got around. Pt Chevalier were unbeaten and Afu was the top try scorer in the competition.

The Roosters liked what they saw in the second-rower and late last month development manager Peter O'Sullivan - the man who took Roger Tuivasa-Sheck to Bondi - turned up at Afu's house to sign him to a two-year contract.

"In the past, mentally, he wasn't fully there," says Pocklington. "Now he is much more focused. He's always had an X-factor but now he is developing the other elements to go with it."

Afu will play out the domestic season, following a Roosters training programme while he balances work and study commitments.

"It's amazing to be able to live my dream and be a professional league player, especially to help my family," he says. "After almost making it when I was young - then being away for so long - I'm very blessed. But I have a long way to go [and] it is going to be tough. But no matter how hard it is, I won't stop. This is probably my last chance."