Julius Caesar. Holocaust survivor Viktor E Frankl. And Brazilian jiu-jitsu icon Rickson Gracie.
Welcome to the mind of rising Panthers centre Izack Tago, where all three occupy more space than most 20-year-olds can spare.
Penrith teammates began to suspect they might have a different cat on their hands last year when players spent every waking minute together during last year’s Sunshine Coast hub. Tago, they noticed, spent barely any of it on his phone.
Instead, the rookie back-rower turned centre would spend 30 minutes of each day practicing the same yogic breathing exercise Gracie championed as a famed descendent of Brazilian jiu-jitsu’s founding fathers.
In the final minutes before taking the field in Penrith’s premiership defence, Tago will employ the technique that featured in 2008 Marvel film The Incredible Hulk, where Gracie’s cameo saw him slapping Bruce Banner (Ed Norton) as he tried not to turn into a giant green rage monster.
“It helps me get ready before a game but if I’m really on top of my routine I like to do it daily,” Tago tells the Herald ahead of Friday night’s sold-out finals clash against Parramatta.
Rickson Gracie performs his breathing techniques with Ed Norton in The Incredible Hulk.Credit:Universal Pictures
“You breathe deeply into your stomach, you expand your ribs and then it’s a sharp exhale. Then you inhale again and you do it 30 times and you can play around with it.
“When I’m warming up I’ll get myself into the moment and then depending on how I’m feeling I’ll use that technique to either pump myself up or calm myself down.
“When I first started playing NRL, I’d go mad at the start of games, running everywhere and I’d be gassed out pretty quickly. Now I know how to pace myself with it.”
Teammates have clocked Tago’s lack of social media presence and increasingly rare ability to live without his phone every waking moment.
Assistant coach Cameron Ciraldo and Panthers wellbeing officer Kevin Kingston often discuss books and reading material with Tago as he typically aims to get through a chapter each day.
War, history and a collection of the most successful military commanders first piqued the Samoan international’s interest.
“I used to love reading about conquerors like Alexander the Great,” he says.
“The fact someone can conquer the whole known world, when you think about the ambition behind that and what it takes, that’s pretty crazy.
“Napoleon, Julius Caesar, they’re all pretty interesting characters.
Tago has been one of the NRL’s most improved players in 2022.Credit:NRL Photos
“I didn’t study history at school or anything. I was still a good student but I was going through the motions, I was there for footy really. It wasn’t until I left school that I started really learning and started looking for something to help me improve my mindset.”
Frankl’s Man’s Search for Meaning: An Introduction to Logotherapy, is Tago’s top recommendation for anyone doing the same.
For the record, Ciraldo rates it “one of the greatest books ever written”.
The 1946 chronicle of Frankl’s time in Nazi concentration camps, and the psychiatrist’s theory that humans are driven not by pleasure, but the pursuit of meaning and purpose, has in turn struck a chord with one of the NRL’s most improved players.
“The perspective it gives you, I took a lot out of that and how you view the world,” Tago explains.
“There’s a scene where [prisoners] were being transported on a train and they’re looking for the sunset out of a keyhole in the train. They’d all take turns and that would make their whole week. We take so much for granted.
“Something like that, I sit there and try to appreciate my life and things a bit more.”
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