Brendon Pongia, left, pictured with his 13 months younger brother, Quentin Pongia. Both represented New Zealand in sport - Brendon in basketball and Quentin in rugby league. Photo / Supplied
Brendon Pongia, left, pictured with his 13 months younger brother, Quentin Pongia. Both represented New Zealand in sport - Brendon in basketball and Quentin in rugby league. Photo / Supplied
There was laughter in Quentin Pongia's last days, the league legend's brother says.
In the days before the 48-year-old's death, the man remembered by teammates and rivals as one of the toughest on the playing field watched old videos of himself playing rugby league in the 1990s, and laughed atmore recent footage of his brother's Dancing with the Stars' moves.
The Kiwis' and NRL hard man succumbed to bowel cancer a week ago, and will be farewelled in Greymouth today. Pongia's brother, former Tall Black and broadcaster Brendon Pongia, said his brother was at peace in his final weeks.
"It was probably the calmest I'd seen him, or the most at peace I'd seen him ... he was just happy to be home."
Their final days together included watching old videos of Pongia playing both for the Canberra Raiders and the Kiwis, Brendon Pongia said.
"I got the VHS going and we were watching old games from when he was playing for the Raiders ... we watched the Grand Final again, the one they won [in 1994]. I think it just took him back, because he'd been so sick. He just sat back and admired and enjoyed."
Quentin Pongia in action during a match against Australia in 1998. He earned 35 caps for the Kiwis and played 137 NRL games. Photo / Photosport
Also on the playlist was a tape showing him competing on Dancing with the Stars in 2007, Brendon Pongia said.
"That was hilarious. He wanted to watch it twice. He was laughing because he never got to see [me on] it, because he was away."
And while he laughed, Pongia remained a loyal brother.
"He got stuck into the judges because they were giving me stick ... talking about my feet. [He was saying] 'Oh, what were they watching?'"
The brothers also watched old Kiwis games - Pongia earned 35 caps — and reminisced about growing up in Greymouth.
"[We talked about] just things that matter ... it rains a lot down here on the West Coast and we were listening to the rain and he said, 'You know what? I love the rain on the roof'.
"So it was just simple things — the rain on the roof, being home."
Brendon Pongia, top row second from left, and Quentin Pongia, top row second from right, pictured in about 1975 with their Marist Rugby League Club teammates. Photo / Supplied
A who's who of Southern Hemisphere rugby league, including Ruben Wiki, Logan Swann, Jason Croker, Brett Mullins, Jarrod McCracken, Sean Hoppe, Craig Smith, Howie Tamati and Frank Endacott, are expected at today's funeral, but love for his brother had crossed the globe and sporting codes.
"I'm getting messages from rugby players like [former All Black] Hosea Gear, who as a young boy looked up to Quentin, I'm getting messages from players from all sports that just looked up to him and what he represented."
Most proud were members of the communities he was closest too - his hometown and the sport he loved.
"He made people [from the West Coast] proud, because he was one of theirs. The community felt he was theirs, just like the Canberra community does, just like the rugby league community does — that's his legacy."
Two years before his death, Quentin Pongia and his wife Sue became parents to a daughter, Maia. Photo / Supplied
Pongia's 2-year-old daughter Maia would "hear all that", Brendon Pongia said.
"It'll be important for me as his brother to be able to do that, for her to understand the mark of the man, not just on the football field, but off as well."
After a career that also included stints at the Warriors, Roosters, St George Illawarra and Wigan, Pongia was a coach and mentor for several national and NRL sides. Most recently he was wellbeing officer for the Manly-Warringah Sea Eagles.
Off field, he was quiet and private, but loved music, travel, family and, from a young age, a wide range of sports, Brendon Pongia said.
League, rugby, softball, tennis, cycling, swimming and basketball — the latter fortunately not as seriously as league.
"I was just glad he didn't take basketball [as seriously] because I would've had a shorter career. He was talented enough to do anything and he was so determined. He just had the will to win."
In March, Pongia spoke about the need to let friends and family into his life, and it was a change noticed by his brother.
"He leaned on me heavily in the last bit, which was an honour ... I was lucky enough to be able to be there for him in the last part of his life, to be that older brother and help him get ready to go to the other side."
But his brother was in charge to the end, Brendon Pongia said.
"It was his journey. He called the shots on it and he finished on his own terms. You've got to admire that."
