{"id":836201,"date":"2026-07-31T18:41:42","date_gmt":"2026-07-31T18:41:42","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/836201\/"},"modified":"2026-07-31T18:41:42","modified_gmt":"2026-07-31T18:41:42","slug":"milestone-emotional-and-bittersweet-for-shark-illawarra-mercury","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/836201\/","title":{"rendered":"Milestone ’emotional’ and ‘bittersweet’ for Shark | Illawarra Mercury"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"It'sIt’s been a tough road for Cronulla’s Siosifa Talakai, who plays his 150th NRL match this weekend. Photo: Mark Evans\/AAP PHOTOS<\/p>\n

Former garbageman Siosifa Talakai becomes emotional reflecting on the rocky road to his 150th NRL game, the last personal milestone he will celebrate with Cronulla.<\/p>\n

Any milestone is hard won for powerful utility Talakai, whose career was at a crossroads when South Sydney sacked him in mid-2018.<\/p>\n

Talakai went all of 2018 and 2019 without any first-grade appearances, taking a job as a garbage collector amid reserve-grade stints with Penrith and Newtown.<\/p>\n

After playing in Newtown’s NSW Cup grand-final win in 2019, Talakai joined the Sharks for pre-season and went on to become an NRL mainstay and NSW representative.<\/p>\n

“I definitely get emotional about it because this is a club that’s given me everything, a second chance, a second opportunity at a professional NRL career,” Talakai said ahead of his milestone.<\/p>\n

“A couple of years ago, I was a garbo and I was only playing for the Newtown Jets.<\/p>\n

“No one else gave me a chance but the Sharks, and this weekend I just want to honour them.”<\/p>\n

\"SiosifaSiosifa Talakai gets emotional when he thinks about his winding NRL journey. (Dan Himbrechts\/AAP PHOTOS)<\/p>\n

Talakai, 29, has grown since leaving Souths, Cronulla’s opponents at Shark Park on Sunday.<\/p>\n

“I’d like to think I’m a better player than I was when I was at the Rabbitohs,” he said.<\/p>\n

“(The milestone) is just a bittersweet one because it’s one against the former club, but then it’s definitely one that I get to put on for the club that’s given me everything.”<\/p>\n

Chasing financial security for his family, Talakai in February signed a three-year deal to join expansion franchise Perth for their inaugural season.<\/p>\n

That difficult decision has left the Tongan international all the more eager to savour Sunday afternoon’s game.<\/p>\n

“My previous milestones, I’ve probably downplayed it a bit, but with this one being the last one with the Sharks, it’s just that extra bit special,” he said.<\/p>\n

A 150th NRL game could be just the beginning for Talakai this year as the Sharks, fourth on the ladder to begin the weekend, hit top gear at just the right time.<\/p>\n

Cronulla have won eight of their last nine games and, after consecutive preliminary-final finishes, are eyeing a slightly deeper run into the play-offs in 2026.<\/p>\n

“We’ve all definitely tuned in and we’re all definitely chasing after the same goal,” Talakai said.<\/p>\n

Australian Associated Press<\/p>\n

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Loading…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"It’s been a tough road for Cronulla’s Siosifa Talakai, who plays his 150th NRL match this weekend. Photo:…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":836202,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[568],"tags":[64,63,761,762,158,85],"class_list":["post-836201","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-nrl","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-national-rugby-league","tag-nationalrugbyleague","tag-nrl","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/836201","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=836201"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/836201\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/836202"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=836201"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=836201"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=836201"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}