Currently enjoying his third full pre-season with the Sydney Roosters first grade squad, Poasa Faamausili popped in to the Roosters office to hang out and have a chat about a number of topics.
He discussed the pre-season, his motivation, where he wants to improve, how he reacted when he found out he was going to play first grade and more.
Enjoy the full chat below!
Poasa, you're now in your third first grade pre-season! How is this one treating you?
I feel way better mentally than I did in previous years.
I'd say that I feel more prepared and ready than I have before as well.
Do you find yourself as a leader to some of these younger guys coming through?
I feel like I have a responsibility to teach some of these young forwards the way, especially the Polynesian Islander boys.
Whenever they need a hand, I offer my help in any way that I can.
How is this crop of young guys coming through?
Yeah they've got a good attitude!
They're still trying to learn the ropes and how the first grade lifestyle works.
It's up to us and good for us to teach them what we've learnt through our experience.
It definitely keeps me on my toes.
You've been here since the S.G. Ball days in 2014 and have seen so much success throughout the grades. Tell us about that journey for you.
It's been a long journey, but one that's been really rewarding and I've really enjoyed.
Every year I come and try to learn something new and absorb as much information as I can.
My mission is to never stop learning, learn something new every day, always stay hungry and keep improving.
What's your motivation that keeps you coming back every day?
More than anything, it's the opportunity to wear those colours.
I want to wear those first grade colours.
It means a lot to me and I've put in a lot of hard work.
I believe that will pay off once I pull on that jersey again.
Speaking of which, you got your first taste of first grade in 2018.
What a special occasion that was for you.
Yeah man, it definitely was a dream come true.
All that hard work, everything that lead up to it.
It was such a huge relief.
There was a lot of hard work and sacrifice that lead me to that moment.
You were one of three debutants, all three of you scored and we went on to win the game.
How was it being a part of a game like that?
To do that with Paul Momirovski and Sean O'Sullivan who I played a lot of reserve grade with that year was really special.
It was a good feeling for all of us.
How did you feel when you found out that you were going to debut?
Robbo told me that an opportunity may be coming, but before he was certain we had to wait until Victor Radley had been to the judiciary cause he was facing a suspension.
I think it was on a Thursday and the game was on a Saturday.
I was driving home, he rang me and just said "you're in".
So yeah, I was pretty happy about that.
Did you speak to anyone when you found out?
Nah, I was just screaming!
I just screamed in my car, I said "Finally, it's finally happening."
There's spots available heading into a brand new season, so no doubt you'll have your hand up when your number gets called?
That's all I'm thinking about, and I'm doing that through hard work.
I'm not too worried about anything else, just taking each day as it comes, learn something new every day and do all the hard work.
Any goals for 2019?
I want to put on some more size, get bigger.
Ideally want to be around that 106-108kg weight mark.
I want to get bigger and improve my knowledge of the game.
