‘I knew I was gifted’: Suaalii’s journey from raffles to riches – and an Australian jersey

The path to becoming one of the highest-paid footballers in Australian history begins with Joseph-Aukuso Suaalii hustling raffle tickets at the local netball courts.

The year was 2014 and Suaalii’s prodigious talent as an 11-year-old athlete was well and truly apparent. In year 5 at Regentville Public School, in Sydney’s west, Suaalii had been chosen for the NSW primary schools team in five sports: basketball, athletics and all three footy codes - league, union and AFL.

“But when you make these teams, you travel a lot, and growing up, we didn’t have a lot of money,” Suaalii says.

“You would get tickets for a raffle to help raise money and so we would go down to my sister’s netball carnival, and I would be going around try to sell them. I was so embarrassed, because I was always shy as a kid.”

Forget ground floor investment with Apple or Uber, out at Glenmore Park netball they got early Suaalii stock.

It all worked out, obviously. Suaalii proved to be so ridiculously good at sport he was a national high jump champion within a year, was dubbed “the next Folau” in the Herald as a 14-year-old, and by age 16, had South Sydney, the Roosters and Rugby Australia jostling to offer him the biggest cheque. By 17, he’d won special dispensation to play in the NRL.

Then, at the age of 20 - just nine years after chasing coins courtside - Suaalii signed one of the richest contracts in Australian sport history, to switch codes and play rugby.

Ahead of his debut at Twickenham on Sunday morning, Suaalii opened up on the pressure of being rugby’s multi-million-dollar man, why money doesn’t drive him, the game that motivated his rugby return and the lessons from his hard-working parents that have underpinned his life and career, so far.

Growing up in various suburbs around Penrith, Suaalii was not just one of those kids in junior sport, he was THE kid. He began in league for Glenmore Park and took athletics seriously, too, but by the time he turned 11, Suaalii had a very full dance card of sports.

His first taste of rugby came when he was asked to play for the Sydney West district in a PSSA carnival in year 5.

“They asked me, and I had just played league growing up, I never played union. But in my head I was, ‘oh, you know, more days off school, sweet’,” Suaalii said.

But Suaalii was making so many teams, winning events and duly qualifying for the next level, time at Regentville Public School became more and more infrequent. A special education plan was built to make sure he didn’t fall behind.

Even at that age, Suaalii understood he wasn’t like most other kids, and by the time he was 12 he’d resolved to be a professional sportsman - but which sport?

“I knew I was gifted, when I started doing well and making all these teams,” Suaalii said.

“I have always had a ball in my hand. At Glenmore Park, I would stay at the fields, like, all day. Just kicking, running, practising everything. Same with basketball, just shooting hoops.

“I always had that goal of being my best self.”

Often Suaalii’s rivals could only shake their head. In 2015 he arrived at the national school athletics carnival to compete in the under 12s high jump.

“I hadn’t really trained for it, because I was doing all diferent sports,” Suaalii recalled. “I rocked up and everyone is putting their tape down, to mark where to jump from. I looked at my old man, like ‘what am I going to do?’. So I just went OK, I made my run up from the middle and just curved around a bit and jumped.

“It kept on working and I ended up winning that. And they went, ‘do you want to go for the record’? And I was like, sweet, I will go for the record. And I got the record.”

Suaalii’s jump of 1.78m still sits in the books as the Australian under 12 record.

“My old man afterwards gave me 50 bucks as a congrats,” Suaalii said.

Suaalii is the second-oldest child of Chris, a Samoan-Australian, and Salina, who has Cambodian heritage. He has six sisters, ranging from four to 23, and a 13-year-old brother.

Suaalii’s father worked as a rigger and labourer but one of the busiest jobs was driving kids to sport, particularly Joseph. Suaalii credits his parents with instilling him with a work ethic that would turn raw talent into a career.

“They were always there, there was always one or both of them there, even to this day. All my NRL games, they came to every single game,” Suaalii said.

“My family mean the world to me. If you’re in a crowd with 80,000 people or 30,000 or whatever, it’s always comforting just seeing them there.

“My little sisters go off to class and they do show and tell. They always talk about their big brother. That is nice, to be someone they look up to.”

Suaalii was never allowed to get too big for his boots - “Dad had that tough love going” - and as the world quickly got crazy for Suaalii with league and rugby interest turning him into a professional commodity, the bed rock of family became even more valuable.

“Just watching my parents and how hard they worked, it had an effect on me,” Suaalii said.

“And I also watched the best athletes and how they did stuff. All the best ones have a great work ethic, and it is something I feel like I picked up young.

“I would wake up early in the mornings and do push-ups or go for a run, and then I started doing two and three sessions in a day. I felt like in those younger years, it was weird, I just knew this is what I want to do and this is how I have to get there.”

“There’s a young kid at Kings and he is insane. Everyone is chasing him”.

If you were around football in 2017, you would have starting hearing something similar about Suaalii. His reputation as the next big thing spread like wildfire across Sydney, after Souths had recruited him for their junior rep teams and he’d started attending the Kings’ School, too.

By the time he was in year 9, Suaalii was in the school’s first XV and the combined GPS team, too. He was a guest of the Wallabies at a training session in Penrith in 2017, where he met Michael Cheika and his idol Israel Folau.

“I was in the paper when I was 14. They called me the next Folau when I was 14,” Suaalii said, referencing a Herald article in 2018.

“And the first time you see it, I thought ‘how cool’. You go to your mates and go ‘I am in the paper’. But then the more you’re in the paper and in the news, sometimes the pressure and expectations grow.

“But my Dad and that tough love approach, and just my family, they have always kept me grounded.”

Soon enough, Suaalii’s name was everywhere. He played for the Australian schoolboys rugby team and was a star for the Rabbitohs junior sides, too.

Before he’d finished school, Suaalii had opted to pursue league with Souths but in 2020, he upped and joined the Roosters on a four-year deal. A year later, the Roosters received special dispensation for Suaalii to make his NRL debut at the age of 17.

At an age where most teenagers are worried about pimples and being in the right chat groups, such a bright spotlight must have felt like incredible pressure?

“I was aware of it all, obviously, but I honestly just tried to focus on enjoy the footy,” Suaalii said. “Everything said around that is external. I have obviously had my ups and downs with certain things, I probably didn’t know how to handle it when I was younger.

“But I have always had great people around me, to straighten me up. Life is not always going to be about going up. You’ll have times going down, but it’s about minimising how far.”

During four years at the Roosters, Suaalii says he grew up, from boy to man.

“I will always love that club,” he said. “It will always feel like a home to me.”

Suaalii cites four teammates who taught him the most, as big brother figures as well as athletes: Luke Keary, Joey Manu, Daniel Tupou and Jared Waerea-Hargreaves.

Each taught him something different: Manu’s unshakeable chill, Keary’s smarts, Tupou’s consistency and JWH’s ability to be a beast of a competitor on field, and a kind and gentle man off it.

“The biggest thing I learned, I reckon, is you have to be a great person off the field – before anything else,” he said. “They have won premierships, played Tests, done it all. And they’re still great people to everyone they meet.”

The story goes that Suaalii’s switch to rugby began when former RA chairman Hamish McLennan picked up the phone in early 2023 and posed the question.

And it is mostly true, but Suaalii reveals he was already interested in making a switch long before that call, and when signing with the Roosters, had planned his contract to end in 2024. Why? The British and Irish Lions tour of Australia in 2025.

“In the back of my head I knew the Lions tour was there and I wanted to come back,” Suaalii said.

“In 2013 I was 10-years-old and watching Israel debut (in the first Test in Brisbane) and Kurtley Beale slipping over and missing the (penalty) kick (which would have won the game). I still remember that vividly, sitting at home watching on TV. And it only happens once in every 12 years. That was always a big goal and dream of mine, to play in a Lions series. That’s what drew me back.”

RA paid a premium to get Suaalii back: a $1.6 million-a-year contract, for a minimum of three years.

He understands the focus on his salary, and that his pay cheque will be mentioned every time he laces a boot.

But beyond the comfort he draws from being able to help his family financially, Suaalii says money has never been a motivating factor in why he plays sport.

“Everyone is going to talk about [his salary] but for me, money has never been a thing I chased. I chased my dreams,” Suaalii said.

“Growing up, we didn’t have a lot of money, it was just about being good people. Obviously it is a big talking point, because people click onto it to read about. But for myself, money is just money. Money does not drive me.”

Wallabies players have lined up to shoot down the notion there is jealousy about Suaalii’s swag. Experienced Wallabies coaching staff have marvelled at his level of professionalism for a 21-year-old.

The comparisons to Folau are obvious as an athlete, but also in a personality that’s both humble and self-confident, according to one Wallabies insider.

“A big thing for me is dreaming big and aiming for the stars. Just believing you can do it, and then finding the process that work to get to those goals and dreams,” he said.

“It’s an ongoing challenge, it’ll never stop. Playing rugby now, I love how there are different parts of the game I need to get better at. There is a constant pursuit of better every day and I love that.”

Chris and Salina Suaalii will be in the Twickenham stands, and as his usual way, Joseph will find them and draw strength from their presence.

“It is one of the things I wrote down as a kid. I want to play for my country, to wear an Australian jersey,” he said.

“And that will be special. It’s a dream.”