Graham is generally regarded as the greatest of all New Zealand rugby league players.

Risking Marist brotherly displeasure

The 68-year-old Kiwi forward is also a staunch Catholic, a Marist-schooled lad.

Faith is a huge part of his life, says the St Paul's College Auckland old boy.

"People go, ‘Oh yeah, that's a real rugby league school.'

"I tell them it wasn't when I went there.

"Rugby league was on the bottom rung for a long time.

"We organised ourselves to play in a secondary schools league competition during a holiday period, trained ourselves and wore our first XV jerseys.

"The school was really upset with us until we told them we won it. There were no rugby league schools then. It was all first XV."

The movie

"My father is proudly a working man, wants to get his hands dirty to earn his money, and he did so right up until he retired" says his film-maker son, Luke Graham.

"He never wanted a cruisy media job or anything like that. I'd always wondered why.

"It was because of his father Thomas who ... always took the most challenging road - my father did the same in spades."

Graham junior's docudrama - called Sharko - will get its first public airings at the Doc Edge Festival.

It will be in New Zealand main centres in June and July. It is due for a theatrical release later this year.

It concentrates somewhat on the 1985 series between the Kiwis and an Australian side peppered with greats.

"We show you this amazing footage - it's amazing what you notice when you go through old film" Graham junior says.

Screen Australia and Screen Queensland gave fantastic support and Graham junior put in "a big chunk" of his own money.

He says the result is a film "touching on parenthood, fatherhood through generations, a sprinkle of a few things - if rugby league isn't your cup of tea, you can connect with the family story".

Source

• NZ Herald

Along with the close support of the club's senior leadership group and coaching staff, he also looks for guidance from his church pastor and has recently taken to reading the books of self-help guru Tony Robbins. Read more

I wonder if a harmless nomenclature like the "Blues" explains the relative lack of success enjoyed by Kirwan's men.

I have been trying to think of a suitably violent animal to suggest to Sir John but all suitable names seem used up.

The violence that the codes of both games tolerates both on and off the fields is frankly appalling.

Spear tackling which I understand is illegal in rugby can lead to permanently disabling injuries.

No one seemed too concerned apart from Brian O'Driscoll when All Black Tama Umanga spear-tackled the Irishman in 2005 thereby ensuring he could no longer play in the Lion's tour of the country that year.

Umanga branded O'Driscoll as a "sook" in his biography and berated the media for criticising his violent action. The two men were reconciled some four years later.

There has been more than one incident this year of spectator or player attacks on referees.

A minority of rugby and league players seem to have few qualms about beating up their partners.

And apparently the All Blacks have iconic value for all New Zealanders.

The odd visit to Starship Children's Hospital in Auckland does not disguise the fact that players are committed to a violent game. Continue reading.

Manu's arms, legs and torso are covered with tattoos. There is the name of his mother on his wrist, another stresses the importance of putting family first, and on his upper left arm he has a depiction of the family's favourite passage from the Bible, Philippians chapter four, verse six, "Do not be anxious about anything, but in every situation, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God."

"It just means for all your problems, you pray to God and ask him to help you through the tough times and he'll get you through it," says Manu.

"I grew up going to church each Sunday and it's a massive part of my life. I feel really blessed to be in this position … I'm really close to my family. They're always going to be there for me and a big part of my life."

Source

• The Sydney Morning Herald
• Image: The Age

Catholic Cathedral College students Thoren Fidow-Kele, 16, and brother Jiordan, 15, have been named in the New Zealand residents' age-group rugby league squads in only their second seasons in the sport.