DAVID, YOU’RE BACK LIVING AND WORKING IN PAPUA NEW GUINEA AGAIN – HOW LONG HAVE YOU BEEN HOME?
Since retiring, I went back to Cairns and started my coaching career there through all different levels, juniors up to seniors. Along the way, I’ve always had this urge to come back home to do something in terms of giving back. I’ve been back and forth over the past 15 years, then in the last two years it’s been virtually fulltime up here.
YOU’VE BEEN A PROMINENT MENTAL HEALTH ADVOCATE FOR SOME TIME, SHARING YOUR OWN STRUGGLES. CAN YOU TELL US ABOUT THE MI STAP MOVEMENT?
That’s just a journey about me sharing my story, either through podcasts or interviews, for listeners to understand what former rugby league players go through – and also men in general, because I’m speaking to other men around my circles and we tend not to share personal stories or feelings. I’ve also got a friend that’s writing a book about my story – that’s called ‘Mi Stap’ as well – to share my whole life, the adversity and trauma and the work that I’m doing now. At the moment, through coaching one of the local teams here, or connecting with coaches and in a group environment, I’ve been sharing a little bit of what I’ve gone through.
‘Mi Stap’ means (in Tok Pisin, the most widely spoken language in Papua New Guinea) I’m here … it’s virtually saying that I’m here for you. If it’s a young person, or brother to brother, someone’s always there for you. So that’s kind of told the story of my life, there was always someone there to keep me on the right path. If I was in some sort of situation or trouble, there was always someone there for me. I wanted to highlight that through the book and through conversations: We can’t leave anyone behind. Like in Australia, the R U OK program, that was something that really stood out for me. That meant something, those words.
WHAT WAS YOUR UPBRINGING IN PAPUA GUINEA LIKE AND HOW DID YOUR FAMILY’S MOVE TO QUEENSLAND COME ABOUT?
I was born in Nonga Hospital and grew up in Baii village, that’s near Rabaul in East New Britain [province]. I went to school for a few years in Rabaul town, my father was a schoolteacher and my mother was a stay-at-home mother. My father was an Aussie and we moved to Cairns because he was dying of lung cancer – that was the closest centre to Papua New Guinea. I think he had about six months after he found out, that was back in ‘83, so I was eight or nine. He tried to teach me how to drive, trying to prepare us for life without him. When he passed away my mum kind of took over, provided for us for a whole life in Cairns.
When I left school, I went to Gladstone for a year, played under Chris Close – he was our captain-coach [at Gladstone Brothers] – and nearly went to the Gold Coast Seagulls, but I ended up getting picked up by Tim (Sheens) and the Raiders. I went to Canberra for a pre-season at the end of ‘92, then played under Craig Bellamy in the [under] 21s in ‘93 and made first grade that same year.
BEING PART OF THAT INCREDIBLE RAIDERS SIDE IN ‘94 AT ONLY 19 OR 20 – SCORING THE TRY THAT SENT THE MAJOR SEMI INTO EXTRA-TIME, WINNING A GRAND FINAL – MUST HAVE BEEN A WHIRLWIND FOR A YOUNG BLOKE FROM PNG…
Yeah, I was there because I loved rugby league – but I didn’t really comprehend that achievement until years later. I was really raw to the game, I started when I was 12, and I wanted to play because I watched it on TV and I heard you could make money out of it. I said to my mother, ‘I want to play on TV and buy you a house’, which happened. I just enjoyed playing rugby league, being at that level and meeting all my teammates, and enjoying that life.
We had a team full of superstars and us young kids had to really fight to get into the minimal positions that they had … we turned up and really fought hard. It was a battle every session. The ones that really showed that commitment and resilience and hard work made it, and I was one of them. I think it goes back to my upbringing and my family – and especially my mother, what she had to go through, and how we grew up having not much.
INJURIES CAUGHT UP WITH YOU THOUGH – HOW HARD WAS IT TO LEAVE FOR SYDNEY IN 2000?
I didn’t really want to leave Canberra but I badly injured my right knee in Halifax during the [1997 World Club Challenge]. That put me out nearly two years, so my game wasn’t the same because I was more of a running forward. I just wasn’t the same when I came back in ‘99, so the Raiders couldn’t extend my contract. There were younger players coming through, so my manager got me a one-year deal with Parramatta – a lifeline from Brian Smith, who had enjoyed watching me. I had a good season and got another one-year extension, then I tore some cartilage in my wrist halfway through [2001] and missed a grand final. But I got back to playing good footy again because of Brian’s coaching – I really focused on skill and fitness.
THEN ONE LAST SEASON WITH NORTHERN EAGLES IN 2002…
Brian helped out again, he called (Northern Eagles coach) Peter Sharp and said, ‘Take this guy on-board’. I played half the season again, had a minor operation on my right knee and got a staph infection. That kind of ended my career – I was in hospital for a couple of weeks and lost 20 kilos.
AS ONE OF THE FIRST PAPUA NEW GUINEA PLAYERS BECOME A PROMINENT PLAYER IN THE AUSTRALIAN COMPETITION, DID YOU FEEL A SENSE OF RESPONSBILITY TO FLY THE FLAG FOR YOUR COUNTRY, SO TO SPEAK?
I was still young, so I didn’t really see it that way. I’d never really thought about playing for Papua New Guinea because I played rugby league for the first time in Cairns and it was about making Queensland and playing [first grade] and winning a grand final. When I was asked, I said I’d love to. I got chosen for the 1995 World Cup in England and I really enjoyed the time with the boys because I got to reconnect with my people and players from all over Papua New Guinea. I got to learn about our culture and our country on that tour.
I just came in to do my best – there was Adrian Lam and (Raiders teammate) Bruce Mammando as well. The [PNG-based players] didn’t have the upbringing that we had and all that skill that we learned through the juniors, but the passion was unbelievable. So throwing that jersey on and running onto the field together, there was no ‘us and them’ because we had more experience. We just did it together. That’s how I felt coming into that camp, our coach was from Papua New Guinea and that was my mindset. We all just had a job and we were going to do this together.
DATE OF BIRTH
7 June, 1974
CURRENT AGE
51
BIRTHPLACE
Baii, Papua New Guinea
POSITIONS
Prop, second-row, lock
PLAYING HISTORY
1993-99: Canberra Raiders
2000-01: Parramatta Eels
2002: Northern Eagles
REP FOOTBALL
1995-2001: Papua New Guinea
JUNIOR CLUB
Cairns Kangaroos
TOTAL NRL MATCHES
143
TRIES | POINTS
8 | 32
