There’s not many genuine enforcers left in the modern game.
So with no Tommy Raudonikis or John Donnelly floating around the Storm sheds, even if Roy Masters is a regular presence, Nelson Asofa-Solomona settles for giving himself a few smacks in the face before each game.
“Oh man, I love Roy, and that famous footage floats around a fair bit for us,” Asofa-Solomona laughs, referencing the iconic 60 Minutes footage of Masters’ Magpies slapping each other with eye-watering gusto.
“But I’ve been doing it for a long time, since I was at school. First thing you want to do when you get on the field is feel the contact, so I like to get in early and ah… inflict a bit of pain.”
Returning from a six-week knee injury via the bench against the Warriors on Anzac Day, Big Nasty, as he is affectionately known at the Storm, slapped himself a couple of times as usual.
Then for the next 58 minutes, he either swatted and trampled defenders, or carried them nonchalantly like bugs on a windshield as he turned the contest Melbourne’s way.
Hooker Harry Grant loves all 200 cm and 115 kg of Asofa-Solomona for exactly this.
“Especially when the six-again rules and modern game speed would have you thinking a big man like NAS might not have survived those rule changes,” Grant says.
Never mind surviving. The NRL’s biggest human is thriving in the high-octane environs of PVL ball, increasing his minutes and key statistics in each season played with set restarts.
Painstaking contract talks had Storm boss Matt Tripp, who is especially close with Asofa-Solomona given the big man’s friendship with his late teenage daughter Bella, fearing he would be lost to Eddie Jones and the Wallabies.
So much so that Peter V’landys picked up the phone and joined the fight to keep Big Nasty in the game, Asofa-Solomona eventually turning down what Tripp suspects was “more money on offer elsewhere” from the Dolphins to stay with Melbourne for another four years.
Ahead of a mouth-watering clash with South Sydney’s fellow big men at Magic Round, injury has limited Asofa-Solomona to just three games this season.
And with Jesse and Kenny Bromwich, Felise Kaufusi and Brandon Smith all departing the Storm last year, potentially poked the bear.
“I never really see myself as a leader, I was forced into it a little bit by Craig [Bellamy],” he says.
“But it’s funny, before I was injured in round two, I sat back and was a bit quiet that week. I just watched how the team unfolds. It was a big mistake. I realised I couldn’t do that, I noticed people looked to me for a bit of energy, a bit of inspiration I guess.
“I was injured and had six weeks to stew on it. I realised I was one of the senior boys, I had to bring that energy. I don’t like talking too much, but there are times I’ll have to do it. But I like to talk with my actions, that’s what my dad always taught me.”
Between the ears has been Asofa-Solomona’s biggest shift to become a pace-setting prop in the six-again era.
As any front-rower worth their salt will attest, “it’s a simple job,” he says.
“If I told you I’d changed anything dramatically in my game, I’d be lying. Obviously the game’s gotten faster but you just adapt and evolve, otherwise you’re left behind. I think it’s my mindset more than anything.
“That’s probably the one thing I’m more aware of. Either don’t give a six-again away, or if you do, make sure you make up for it.”
For a man once who once said Bellamy’s best blow-up came after he had over-indulged in heavy sauces “trying to make vegan food taste nice”, his fitness is essential.
When Asofa-Solomona’s engine is in order, the offloads, post-contact metres and ability to attract four and five defenders at a time are simply a natural result of his natural gifts.
“This club is probably based on toilers and guys who work hard but probably don’t have the explosive impact of Nelson,” Storm captain and front-row partner Christian Welch says.
“He’s a real difference-maker for our forward pack and he can really blow that defensive line up.”
Even Asofa-Solomona’s devastating switches to an edge, to the dismay of opposition halves across the game, aren’t overly prescribed.
Nelson Asofa-Solomona trains ahead of the Magic Round showdown with South Sydney.Credit: Getty
“We don’t train at all during the week with me on the edge,” he says.
“So it’s a bit of a privilege that Craig trusts me enough to put me out there in a big game without practising it too much.”
Like fellow enforcer, Kiwi teammate and regular sparring partner Jared Waerea-Hargreaves, Asofa Solomona is your quintessential BFG (Big Friendly Giant) off the field.
And one of the game’s meanest on it, to the point of pantomime villainy and Bellamy querying whether his reputation had seen him targeted by officials last year.
Asofa-Solomona still revels in the role and doesn’t see it disappearing from rugby league any time soon. Though he does admit to smacking a bit of sense into himself with it.
“That’s what the fans come to watch, games with high intensity and a lot of aggression,” he says.
“There’s still space for the enforcer in the game. But there are the penalties, sin-bins and send-offs, so you’ve just got to be smarter and realise that if you do push it too far, you’re only costing the team.
“That’s the big adjustment in my mind, being smarter with my aggression.”
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