“If it wasn’t for him debuting in the NRL then I don’t know where I’d be.”
Those are the words of young gun Dolphins halfback Isaiya Katoa. The person he’s talking about?
Older brother Sione, who played 75 NRL games for the Penrith Panthers and Canterbury-Bankstown Bulldogs between 2015 and 2021.
Speaking to Fox League’s Jake Duke on this week’s episode of Face to Face, Katoa credits the influence of his older brother as the key reason behind his rise up the rugby league ranks.
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Born in Wellington New Zealand, Katoa was eight when he and his family migrated across the Tasman to follow Sione on his rugby league journey, which began in the Sydney Roosters’ system before a move to the Panthers.
It was at the foot of the mountains that Katoa, a crafty hooker, made his first grade debut in 2015. Sione played 47 times for the Panthers before leaving at the end of 2019 to join the Bulldogs.
“He was the main reason why I wanted to go down the NRL pathway,” Katoa said of his older brother.
“As a younger sibling seeing my brother being able to live out his dream, just seeing him play NRL was one thing that was always so cool.”
The younger Katoa credited his brother’s “natural ability to pass on information of what to expect (in first grade)” but revealed his greatest teaching wasn’t in how to manipulate a marker or attack straight, but in how to operate off the field.
“Whether it’s dealing with your body, making sure you’re looking after your nutrition. He always said to me the hard work is away from the team, away from coaches,” Katoa said.
“(It’s) what they don’t see.”
Despite being highly regarded by the Panthers, Katoa’s path into the first grade side was blocked by Nathan Cleary, the greatest halfback of this generation, and Jarome Luai.
So, despite having grown up in Western Sydney and spent years in the junior ranks, he made the decision as a teenager to uproot his life, move states and chance his hand at making it in the NRL.
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He would sign with the NRL’s newsest side and Wayne Bennett, revealingon Face to Face how the master coach had hardly seen him play when he signed him.
Heading into Round One and the Dolphins’ NRL debut, the expectation was Bennett would hand the playmaking duties to Sean O’Sullivan, fresh from an apprenticeship under Nathan Cleary, and Kodi Nikorima.
But Bennett had other ideas.
At a training session over a week out from the Dolphins Round Bennett informed his side they would “probably be a bit surprised” by his opening round line up.
“I didn’t think anything of it,” Katoa said, revealing he expected to spend the opening rounds of the season in Queensland Cup.
Then Bennett named Katoa at six.
“I actually thought ‘did he just say my name on accident or was he meaning to say (it)?” he said.
“I was shocked. I was like ‘oh, oh, I guess I’m making my debut.”
It was deliberate move from Bennett, eight days out from the start of the season, to ease the nerves of his young playmaker.
“Because he (Wayne) gave it to me a lot earlier it settled the nerves,” Katoa said.
“By Tuesday I was over the stage that I was debuting and I was like ‘what’s my job for the team? What have I got to do next?’”
The Dolphins would stun the Roosters 28-18 in their NRL debut and win six of their first 10 matches to sit fourth in May.
They would win just three of their remaining 14 games to end the season 13th but the foundations were set and Katoa was at the heart of it.
