The rise and fall of the Tonga footballer

Conrad Mill

In Australian Rugby League, sledging and hard play are all part and parcel of one of the most extreme contact sports in the world. No one knows this better than Tongan-born John Hopoate, whose controversial career came crashing down this season.

Hopoate turns to boxing to support his eight children.

It all started in 1974 in Tokololo, Tonga. “I was born in my mother's hut,' recalls Hopoate, “but when I was three, we settled in Australia.”

Like many Pacific Islanders, football flows through their veins and he began playing rugby union when he was eight years old.

At fourteen he was playing both rugby union and league. By the age of 18, he was playing first grade rugby league for the district of Manly.

Hopoate was an obvious talent on the wing, taking a lot of pressure off the forwards with his fearlessly hard running style. But his early grade career was marked by on-field sledging that put him in the media spotlight.

Tonga looked set to snare Hopoate for the World Cup in 1995 but with the super league war on, Australian selectors took no chances and named him for the squad.

Australia sailed to an extraordinary victory with an under strength team. But despite Hopoate scoring three tries in a 86-6 win over South Africa, he did not play in the final.

By 1999 Hopoate's personal demons bedevilled him. He was drinking heavily and turned up intoxicated for a training session.

He was nearly sacked. But intervention by his team mates got him off the hook. He was fined and dropped from first grade matches for eight weeks and ordered to seek counselling.

He overcame the drink, became a Mormon and signed up with the newly formed West Tigers. He brought a lot of experience to the young club, but controversy still followed him.
2001 is a year that Hopoate will never forget. Caught on camera poking his finger in a player's backside during a match, the media had a field day and the incident went international. Hopoate was shocked at the reaction. “We looked at the tapes of this and did it at training as a bit of a joke. I had no idea the reaction this would cause,” he says.

Manly football manager, Peter Peters agrees. “There were sections of the media and the league that just wanted him out of the game and they hounded him.

“It was a silly thing to do and John can be his own worst enemy, but it's not like it was a life threatening injury,” Peters said.

Hopoate was suspended over the incident for 'contrary conduct' and then sacked by the Wests. While his team mates were sympathetic, he felt deserted by the club. “There wasn't a lot of support for me over it and I felt isolated.”

Peters agrees. “The Wests have a lot to answer for. At Manly we would have nipped this in the bud before it got out of hand. But there was no evidence that the Wests discouraged it.”

Hopoate moved back to Manly and was given a lifeline in 2005 with a one-year contract, but it was not to last. Mid-season, he crashed head high into a player with his forearm. Despite Manly defending him in front of the judiciary, Hopoate was suspended for the rest of the season and his contract terminated.

Was it a tackle gone wrong? “Of course it was,” says Peters. “It was a badly judged shoulder charge, but with John's reputation and the media wanting blood, he was tried and sentenced long before the judiciary met.”

Hopoate sums it up succinctly. “I have eight children to support, do you think I would do that deliberately and risk it all?”

With everything that has happened to him over the years, Hopoate has remarkable strength. Today, he is training to be a boxer. “Boxing is harder than football, you think it looks easy but the training is much more intense.”

He has a manager and a bout coming up. But would he like to play league again?

“If the opportunity came up, I would, but at the moment I have a family to support and I have to make a living.”

Peters has nothing but admiration for him and thinks he has been hard done by.

“John is great guy, an outstanding player who has played for the state and his country. He has the bad boy reputation and has also copped his share of sledging over the years. But he just takes it on the chin and moves on.

“I would never write John off, he's like Lazarus. He'll probably be a champion boxer. But if the circumstances are right, I'm sure we will see him in the league again.”