Francis Manuleleua used to mow the grass outside Penrith’s training centre and the barnstorming Newcastle back-rower is now intent on cutting the Panthers’ premiership hopes to shreds.
Manuleleua is the breakout star of the Knights’ run to Sunday’s preliminary final at Accor Stadium, where the 22-year-old will face off against the Panthers, the club that brought him to Australia from his native New Zealand.
The Auckland-born forward never played NRL for Penrith after spending several years in the club’s junior grades.
When Manuleleua moved to Sydney’s west, the Panthers gave him a job as a groundsman at their academy, meaning the no-nonsense second-rower had a first-hand look at Penrith from the comfort of a ride-on mower.
Shown a photo of the lawns outside the club’s offices, Manuleleua lets out a deep laugh.
“That’s the front of Penrith's centre of excellence, I reckon I cut that spot up every single day I was there," he told AAP.
“The boys would walk in while I was mowing that … that was a bit of motivation.
“You want to be training full-time and that was just me, I wasn’t up to standards to be training at that level.
“Everyone has to start somewhere so having that job and seeing the boys train gave me the motivation to keep going hard to try to get a full-time gig and I found that here in Newcastle.”
Mitch Kenny was given a similar task when he came through Penrith’s system but unlike the Panthers hooker, Manuleleua struggled with his application.
He has spoken openly of his battles with sweet treats and growing up in a family “where KFC was something I had every second night”.
“People would tell me I had all the talent in the world and I could be the player that people looked up to … but I never worked on the hard, off-the-ball stuff,” Manuleleua said.
“I got found out when I moved over to Penrith … I did a (NSW) Cup pre-season and got kicked in the arse and I was always at the back.”
Manuleleua, who is of Samoan descent, was a halfback coming through the grades before retooling as a damaging edge forward.
Just 13 games into his NRL career, Manuleleua faces arguably his biggest task: going head to head with Liam Martin and shutting down Nathan Cleary as the Panthers halfback battles a foot injury.
“Cleary’s on that edge so the more I contain those two, the better it is for our team," Manuleleua said on Wednesday, before the Knights trained in front of 1500 supporters.
“I heard he’s carrying a niggle, so we’ll see how that goes.”
And as for what he loves about Newcastle, Manuleleua looked across the club’s training centre and said: “Our lawns are way better.”
