Titans enforcer Tino Fa’asuamaleaui admits he will be chasing away butterflies as he runs out for his return from an ACL injury first his first game.
Big Tino was one of a number of big name stars selected to play in this weekend’s important round of Pre-Season Challenge matches, where coincidentally, he will line up against Maroons State of Origin teammate Tom Gilbert who is also returning from an ACL injury as the Dolphins host the Titans.
“I'll have butterflies; I've got butterflies thinking about it now,” Fa’asuamaleaui said. “I've been out of the game for a while and still trying to find my feet and whatnot, and I'll have butterflies, but I should be sweet.”
It’s become a familiar feeling for the forward on his road to recovery, saying he felt them when completing his first successful full training run.
“It just felt good being out with the boys; had a lot of butterflies, I felt like vomiting, I've never had that before and I've played some of the biggest games like Origin,” Fa’asuamaleaui said.
“But it was good, it was good to be able to get the cobwebs out.
“I have still got cobwebs now, still trying to fight off our lungs, but it was just good to be around the team, so I loved it.”
Cameras followed Fa’asuamaleaui on his rehab journey for the series ‘Keep Moving Forward’, with the Gold Coast leader travelling to the USA to work with noted reconditioning specialist Bill Knowles.
Away from his rehab however, Fa’asuamaleaui took the opportunity to invest more time in other important pursuits, like spending more quality time with his family and reconnecting to his roots.
“The big thing for me is that anything can happen in this world, and doing my ACL was a crappy one, but just having that family support reminds you to reconnect with them even more on that deeper level,” Fa’asuamaleaui said.
“It’s not that I never did, but I probably just was so caught up in football that I never actually took the time out; so being able to have that time out away from the game has just helped me be closer to my family, I appreciate them way more and just see what they do behind the scenes for me and for the family, especially my partner (Titans netballer Jordan Ngarimu).
“With our third daughter being born; (I was not) worrying if I'm going to be at footy, if I'm going to miss a game, or all that type of stuff, just knowing that I can give my all to my partner and the kids and being a dad was awesome just being able to do that.
“There was a lot more positives than negatives … tomorrow's not guaranteed, so that's probably been a big thing throughout the rehab.
“It was awesome to also go back to Samoa.
“We haven't been back since we were probably 14 years old … and being able to go back and reconnect with my family over there and my culture was awesome.
“I appreciate it because it was just what I needed throughout the rehab and I'm just so grateful that I got to go over there and reconnect with them and see all the kids I grew up with who now have kids and seeing our kids play together was just awesome and I'll cherish that forever.
“My brother, my sister, my mum and dad all of them went over, so that was so cool to be able to experience that with for them and take our kids over and obviously my parents taking the grandkids and their kids, it was it was so good.”
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All Tries – Broncos v Titans
This week, the side will be keen to right many of the wrongs shown in their heavy loss to the Broncos to get them on the front foot before their first official game in Round 2.
Seeing his team-mates develop in his absence, Fa’asuamaleaui was a big believer that his side can perform well this year, with his teammates gaining valuable experience last year stepping up to help fill the void left by his injury.
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Verrills: 'We've got to be better this week'
“Definitely feel positive, we've done the work, it's just on us to believe that,” Fa’asuamaleaui said.
“There's old wounds and pressure from the outside that may stop us from believing that, but we've done the work under Des [Hasler] and we just got to make sure we get that confidence to go out and do it.
“We've definitely got the squad to do it and boys like Moeaki Fotuaika and Jaimin Jolliffe have really stepped up.
“With me not being there and coming back into the team and seeing that the boys lead the way they lead has helped me as a captain and I'm just a representative of them. They're the ones that have done a lot of work on their leadership and they've really owned their role since I've been gone.
“We (will) … take the lessons, take the learnings from our games last year, good and bad, and then we just take it day-by-day, week-by-week and really work on the things that we need to work on and really put ourselves in the best position to perform for the 80 minutes.
“It's just mentally believing that we can win and really go to that next level because we've done the work and I believe that it's just about believing on executing it.”
Match: Dolphins v Titans
Round 3 -
home Team
Dolphins
5th Position
away Team
Titans
14th Position
Venue: Kayo Stadium, Redcliffe
