{"id":902273,"date":"2026-09-23T07:54:30","date_gmt":"2026-09-23T07:54:30","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/902273\/"},"modified":"2026-09-23T07:54:30","modified_gmt":"2026-09-23T07:54:30","slug":"salesi-foketi-how-the-roosters-young-gun-became-a-defensive-powerhouse-and-impressed-veteran-teammates","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/902273\/","title":{"rendered":"Salesi Foketi: How the Roosters young gun became a defensive powerhouse and impressed veteran teammates"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Billie<\/p>\n

September 23, 2026 \u2014 3:30pm<\/p>\n

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Lindsay Collins has been flattened by more than a few people in his career. It comes with the territory following a decade in the NRL.<\/p>\n

What he didn\u2019t expect was for a baby-faced, 19-year-old Roosters recruit to be one of them.<\/p>\n

\"SalesiSalesi Foketi has a reputation for taking down even the Roosters\u2019 biggest men.Wolter Peeters<\/p>\n

Enter Salesi Foketi: the Auckland-raised second-rower whose growing list of victims includes teammates Collins and Victor Radley\u2013 aka Victor the inflictor \u2013 as well as those who line up opposite him.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe\u2019s gotten stuck into me at training a couple of times,\u201d conceded Collins with a smile.<\/p>\n

The now 22-year-old Foketi was only just dipping his toes into the waters of first grade when he took on the Queensland and Australia representative, who was left on his back and wondering, \u201cwho the hell is this kid?\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cIt would have been his [Foketi\u2019s] first year, and it was the first session of pre-season, and I ran at him, and he just folded me like a deck chair,\u201d Collins said.<\/p>\n

\"SalesiSalesi Foketi storms past Braydon Trindall.NRL Images<\/p>\n

\u201cI ended up on my back and everything. It was a real dagger to ego as well. I didn\u2019t know who this kid was, and he\u2019s just folded me. It was a little introduction into who Salesi is.\u201d<\/p>\n

Foketi\u2019s lethal defence is a far cry from the mild-mannered man you get off the field \u2013 a man who attributes his on-field motivation to his faith, and one bible verse in particular: \u201cDo you not know that those who run in a race all run, but one receives the prize? Run in such a way that you may obtain it.\u201d<\/p>\n

But, as many great rugby league players do, Foketi has mastered the art of flicking the switch.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe\u2019s fearless,\u201d Radley said. \u201cI was suspended years ago, he was in the academy, and I had to wrestle him.<\/p>\n

\"SiuaSiua Wong (left) and Salesi Foketi (right) are the future of the Roosters\u2019 edge backrowers, especially with Angus Crichton (centre) off to rugby next year. Wolter Peeters<\/p>\n

\u201cI remember he had this afro. He was going after it in a wrestle session \u2013 he didn\u2019t have to go that hard, but he was \u2013 I had to try and beat him so I wasn\u2019t embarrassed in front of everyone.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe\u2019s quiet, but he\u2019s got that look in his eye \u2013 he\u2019s fierce.\u201d<\/p>\n

Opposition playmakers are often privy to that look. Last week, it was Braydon Trindall. This week, it\u2019s Isaiya Katoa, who Foketi man-handled on his way to scoring in the Roosters\u2019 26-12 loss to the Dolphins<\/a> a month ago.<\/p>\n

The Tricolours will need that wrecking-ball style from him this Friday night for their preliminary final against the Dolphins at Suncorp Stadium.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n

The guidance from coaches like club legend Boyd Cordner helped Foketi refine his craft. But Foketi says ther foundations of his football were built back home in Auckland by his father Solomone.<\/p>\n

In the era of six-agains, those classic foundations can sometimes be forgotten, says Collins, but Foketi has found the balance between the speed of the modern game and the run-hard, tackle-hard mentality of old-fashioned rugby league.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe\u2019s got beautiful tackle technique,\u201d Collins said. \u201cWhere he sort of gets under that ball, and it\u2019s probably something that we\u2019ve lost a little bit as a game over the last couple of years with the speed and the game, rule changes and stuff like that.<\/p>\n

\u201cBut it\u2019s more technical and stuff now, but someone with that style of tackle and to back himself \u2026 it\u2019s good for a team, it\u2019s good for our team when we see someone bending their back to put someone on their back.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/p>\n

Foketi was trusted with the Roosters No.11 jersey when veteran back-rower Angus Crichton required minor surgery<\/a> on his right foot, but he\u2019s earned his spot in his absence.<\/p>\n

Crichton returned from the injury<\/a> and played 30 minutes off the bench in a kamikaze-style role<\/a> for the Roosters in their semi-final win against Cronulla last week, but, after eight years with the Tricolours, will depart the club for rugby at the season\u2019s end.<\/p>\n

Related Article\"Gentle<\/a><\/p>\n

It\u2019s a changing of the guard for the Tricolours, whose team is increasingly made up of its academy recruits each year.<\/p>\n

But the club is in safe hands, according to utility Connor Watson, who is another of the departing players in 2027.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou\u2019re losing a player like Gus [Crichton] and you think, what are they going to do?\u201d Watson said.<\/p>\n

\u201cBut I think the way he\u2019s [Salesi] come along this year … The last two years, he\u2019s really just worked out his style of football in first grade, and what works for him and how to play consistently.<\/p>\n

\u201cHis last two months of footy for us, ever since Gus got injured, and they moved him into the back row, he\u2019s been unbelievable \u2013 the tone he sets defensively and then just what he adds with the football. He\u2019s certainly talented.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/p>\n

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\"BillieBillie Eder<\/a> is a sports reporter at The Sydney Morning Herald.Connect via X<\/a> or email<\/a>.From our partners<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"September 23, 2026 \u2014 3:30pm Save You have reached your maximum number of saved items. Remove items from…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":902274,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[568],"tags":[64,63,761,762,158,85],"class_list":["post-902273","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\/902273","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=902273"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/902273\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/902274"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=902273"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=902273"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=902273"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}