{"id":153148,"date":"2025-09-18T23:47:20","date_gmt":"2025-09-18T23:47:20","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/153148\/"},"modified":"2025-09-18T23:47:20","modified_gmt":"2025-09-18T23:47:20","slug":"canterbury-bulldogs-sitili-tupouniua-and-kurt-mann","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/153148\/","title":{"rendered":"Canterbury Bulldogs Sitili Tupouniua and Kurt Mann"},"content":{"rendered":"

As an uncapped 20-year-old at Bondi, he first made a name for himself when he accidentally broke Luke Keary\u2019s jaw during a 2018 training drill<\/a> at the Sydney Roosters.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat day poor old Kez [Keary] copped it, oh man, I felt awful,\u201d Tupouniua said. \u201cIt was an accident at training, I just raced out of the line and the \u2018red head\u2019 in me took over.<\/p>\n

\u201cI broke his jaw and I was a bit rattled afterwards because it was my first pre-season with the top squad.<\/p>\n

\u201cA few of the senior guys got around me and said \u2018don\u2019t worry, it was an accident, and that\u2019s how we want you to defend\u2019, but with a bit more control.<\/p>\n

\u201cI feel like I\u2019ve always had that physical side to my game; it\u2019s when I\u2019ve played my best footy, but then it has also caused me a few suspensions at the beginning of this year. It\u2019s about finding that balance.\u201d<\/p>\n

Tupouniua said Mann had played a key role in keeping him calm on the sideline before the pair entered the action together.<\/p>\n

\"Sitili<\/p>\n

Sitili Tupouniua and Kurt Mann kicking back with Jaeman Salmon before training this week.Credit: KATE GERAGHTY<\/p>\n

\u201c\u2018Killer\u2019 [Mann] keeps me calm and is always clear about what our roles are,\u201d Tupouniua said.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019ll talk about what we want to do and what we\u2019re seeing from the bench. He\u2019s not the biggest bloke, but he\u2019s such a beast. He just flies off the line.\u201d<\/p>\n

Loading<\/p>\n

Tupouniua and Mann are impossible to miss because of their hair, with Mann admitting, \u201cI\u2019m growing mine now before it all falls out; I don\u2019t think Sitili\u2019s will fall out\u201d.<\/p>\n

Both men have plenty of big-game experience, and will cope with the emotion that comes with playing in front of 70,000 fans.<\/a><\/p>\n

While Mann debuted for the Maroons<\/a> this year, Tupouniua said he was set to make himself unavailable for Tonga at the Pacific Championships in a bid to give himself a full pre-season at the Dogs.<\/p>\n

Mann praised the role of Harry Hayes coming off the bench, while back-rower Jacob Preston said of the Mann-Tupouniua combination: \u201cYou feel the energy when they come on, they train at the same level [of intensity] they play, and they give you that lift.\u201d<\/p>\n

NRL is Live and Free on Channel 9 & <\/a>9Now.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"As an uncapped 20-year-old at Bondi, he first made a name for himself when he accidentally broke Luke…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":153149,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[568],"tags":[64,63,761,762,158,85],"class_list":{"0":"post-153148","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-nrl","8":"tag-au","9":"tag-australia","10":"tag-national-rugby-league","11":"tag-nationalrugbyleague","12":"tag-nrl","13":"tag-sports"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/153148","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=153148"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/153148\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/153149"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=153148"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=153148"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=153148"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}