Sharks winger Ronaldo Mulitalo has opened up on his tough upbringing, infamous Origin controversy and experiences with online abuse.
Mulitalo revealed he grew up in “two garages” in South Auckland before moving to Ipswich in Queensland as a 13-year-old.
Watch Face-to-Face with Ronaldo Mulitalo on Monday at 7:30pm AEST on Fox League.
Mulitalo and his brothers were raised by their mother and he said what their childhood in New Zealand lacked in comfort, it made up for with a “loving environment”.
“We were raised in two garages, and me and my family just plugged away at it,” Mulitalo told Jake Duke on Face-to-Face.
“My Mum is a tough lady who has been through plenty of adversity. Even though we were doing it tough… she did a good job of still making sure it was a loving environment.
“We lived in one of my mum’s friend’s garages at one time and it was just a little tin one.
“New Zealand is not a sunny place so you would hear the rain hitting the roof all throughout the night and you’d never get a good night’s sleep.”
“You’d wake up with wet feet because the roof would leak and things like that.
“We didn’t realise it straight away but we figured out that people would come into our little garage at night and steal our stuff while we were sleeping….That happened for some time.”
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Mulitalo had only been playing rugby league about a year before he moved to Ipswich as a teenager in 2013.
The time of his arrival in Australia became a contentious issue years later and ultimately saw Mulitalo’s dream of playing Origin for Queensland cruelly dashed.
Mulitalo had been named to play for the Maroons in Game 2 of the 2021 series, but on the morning of the game he was ruled ineligible.
To be eligible for State of Origin, a player who was not born in either state must have lived there prior to their 13th birthday.
“It was a dark time for me,” Mulitalo said.
“I genuinely loved the Maroons and wanted nothing more to represent them in Origin.
“It still stings a little bit even though I’ve come to terms with it.”
Mulitalo also discussed the social media abuse he has copped and why he recently went public with the disgusting messages he has received online.
“It affects my family more than me,” Mulitalo said.
“I guess when you live like a villain on the field, you accept some of that stuff even though it isn’t right.
“I’m speaking up more for the young kid who is coming through the game who has to experience stuff like death threats and racial slurs and all the other nonsense.”
Mulitalo has started 2023 in red-hot form, crossing six times in five games to sit on top of the NRL tries leaderboard alongside Will Kennedy, Kotoni Staggs, Dom Young and Hamiso Tabuai-Fidow.
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