Stairway to heaven: Rabbitohs role in Sifa's breakout season

Sharks forward Siosifa Talakai has revealed on the eve of Saturday night’s semi-final against South Sydney how gruelling early morning workouts on the notorious Coogee stairs with Rabbitohs forward Keaon Koloamatangi helped prepare him for his break-out NRL season.

Talakai, whose NRL career appeared over two years ago until COVID-19 created an opportunity for him to join Cronulla’s top 30-man squad, had been unable to return to pre-season training with his Sharks teammates last year as he wasn’t vaccinated due to a fear of needles.

To stay fit, Talakai would meet with Koloamatangi and a group of other players managed by former Kiwis international Tyran Smith at 7.15am each Saturday to run up and down the 220 stairs at South Coogee.

“We would run together,” Talakai said of Koloamatangi. “He is a good sport. We were usually neck and neck - at the bottom of the group.”

The NSW Origin representative said they would aim to run the stairs up to 30 times in each session.

“The most I have done is about 26,” he said. “We would start from the bottom, and we would do a full half, come back, and do the top half. We would do about 20 or 30 reps, or as many as we could.

“There would be about 30 or 40 kids as well and we would run the staircase together. I would train with them, and I would train at the park by myself.

"I would get some sessions off the boys here [at Cronulla], and I would train on my own at the park or do road runs.”

The 25-year-old played alongside Koloamatangi in the Rabbitohs junior representative teams and hopes to again join up with him in the Tonga side at the upcoming World Cup in England.

However, Talakai will be responsible for trying to shut down the Souths wrecking ball in Saturday night’s sudden death clash at Allianz Stadium as the pair play opposite each other on the same side of the field.

“We played SG Ball together for Souths. Our coach was Willie Peters and he had us playing together on the left side,” Talakai said.

“Keaon plays on the right edge for Souths and I’m on the left. I guess you just have to be aggressive with him. He is a big boy, and he is very skilful, as well. He has late feet, and he is very strong.

“I think we just need to get numbers on him. That is really the only way to contain a big fellow - not to let him wind up or execute his skill. I would say be aggressive and attack him in numbers.”

After arguably the best 40 minute performance of the season against Manly in round seven, in which Talakai scored two tries and laid on three more for Cronulla team-mates, the Mascot junior forced his way into the NSW squad for Origin II and III.

While Talakai received limited game time for the Blues, being in the same team as James Tedesco and Nathan Cleary gave him an insight into how the game’s leading stars prepare to play at their best each week and he has tried to adopt a more professional approach at the Sharks.

“Origin was massive for me,” he said. “The lessons for me were not to get too emotionally invested and to nail all the small things rather than try to come up with the big moments.

“Also, just the preparation and professionalism. There is a reason why Teddy and Cleary are at the top of their game because they do all the small things right and they nail their preparation every day.

“Watching them do that just made me more hungry, and made me want to be like them. I want to be at the top as well. They are obviously doing it and I have got to take my lessons off them.

“My preparation has changed and at training I might still have a laugh here and there, but before I used to joke around a lot. I try not to get carried away and do what I need to do to make sure I am at my peak on game day.

"I do a lot more mobility and a lot more meditating.”

After injuring his ankle in the round 25 match against Newcastle, Talakai was advised to spend 20 minutes per hour on a Game Ready machine to ice it but he doubled that time and had no ill effects in last Saturday night’s epic 32-30 extra time loss to the Cowboys.

He also no longer approaches matches against the Rabbitohs with a point to prove after playing 11 NRL matches for the club before being sacked and refuses to reflect on what he has achieved this season until after the World Cup.

“I find that if I look back I get complacent, and the last time I got complacent I got sacked,” Talakai said. “That was a good lesson for me so I try to look forward, strive to do better than what I have done and stay hungry.

“I am done with Souths. I am a Shark now. It is just another game really but this one might be a bit more important because it is a finals game and it’s do-or-die, but the fact that the other team is South Sydney doesn’t make any difference.

“I am still mates with a lot of the boys there, we are mates until that bell rings for the kick off and then we are mates again after the game.”

However, Talakai does have added motivation for wanting to win in the form of bragging rights over his six-year son Tevita, who is a Rabbitohs fan.

“He has got a Rabbitohs shirt, and he is always wanting to wear it. I don’t mind. He is a footy fanatic like me,” Talakai said.

“If he wants to follow the Rabbitohs he can follow the Rabbitohs, but he is going to be wearing Sharks gear on Saturday. He plays for Mascot, my junior club, in the South Sydney comp so I guess that’s why he follows the Rabbitohs.

“I don’t mind because if we win, I get to give it to him and if Souths win, he is happy so it is a win-win.”