Before Semi Radradra there was Stan Tulevu.
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And while the former Group 10 flier and 1999 premiership-winning two blues winger didn’t reach quite the same heights big Semi did in rugby league, Tulevu’s impact back home, in Fiji, is just as profound.
The former Hawks cult hero is giving back to the tiny Fijian community he grew up in, one he still has family members live in and one he continues to visit once a month.
It takes Tulevu roughly two days to get back to the remote island village in the north of Fiji he called home growing up.
There’s the trip from Orange to Sydney, then two plane flights and a few hours in a boat. It’s dedication.
So it comes as no surprise to find out the next time Tulevu makes the trek home to Fiji, he’ll do so with close to 100 old Hawks jerseys just so members of his community have a shirt to put on their backs.
“Back home they don’t have balls. Whatever they can grab they throw around in the villages,” Tulevu said.
“(Delivering these jerseys) is going to be an eye opener for them.
“They don’t even have a shirt to run around in after school. They wear the same shirt all week.
“You don’t know until you go over there how poor it is.”
A lot of the northern villages in Fiji are rugby mad and after Easter the fields in the area with be awash with two blues.
It’s a notion that makes Tulevu smile.
The evasive winger first came to Australia to play with Hawks in 1997 and played on the flank in the club’s title-winning premier league side two years later.
It’s a playing group many say is one of the best assembled in Group 10, but Tulevu says he’s just lucky to be here, in Orange, let alone a class like that.
“I didn’t even know where Orange was,” he smiled.
“I keep telling everyone, when I was back in Fiji we used to go through the library and look through books.
“I remember seeing Orange and I couldn’t believe there’s a place called Orange and they grow apples,” he laughed.
“Now I live here. Been here 20 years. I’m very privileged to be here.”
Hawks old boys Barry Goodlock and Andrew Blimka have facilitated the donation, with the old two blues jumpers set to be donated to the pacific island nation.
The pair were doing a bit of a pre-season clean and discovered the abundance of old jumpers.
“We had them in the rooms sitting there and we thought what’s the use in keeping them. Blimk came up with the idea and he knows Stan,” Goodlock said.
“It’s good for those kids who are a little bit under-privileged,” Blimka added.
Tulevu can’t wait to take the jumpers home.
“It’ll be a big surprise for them when I go back,” he added.