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[SIZE=-1][/SIZE]Final bound Niko pays tribute to his Bay roots
Doug Laing
2nd October 2010
FORMER Napier schoolboy Elijah Niko fronts up to 80,000 fans tomorrow, but the buildup for the biggest game of his rugby league career is much the same as ever - five episodes of Shortland Street.
It's one of the bonuses of modern in-flight entertainment above the Tasman as he heads with 16 New Zealand Warriors teammates for the NRL's Toyota Cup Under 20 final against the South Sydney Rabbitohs at ANZ Stadium in Sydney, a curtainraiser to the big first-grade clash between the Sydney Roosters and the St George Illawarra Dragons.
"I'm a big fan," said the big Street-watching winger, a 1.92m, 110kg, just-turned-20 version of the kid who did all his schooling in Hawke's Bay. And he played just about every sport going before Mum and Dad Peter and Leoi decided it was time to move to Auckland to give the children their best shot at the big-time and, as it turns out, more chances to watch TV's Kiwi soap.
It's what Niko does to fill in the Air New Zealand flight-time as the team flies to Australia for every second game in what has been a tumultuous season, with the Young Warriors well-placed to be the first from the club to win an NRL final.
He soon found he could fit five episodes into each flight, with the added bonus that they are, apparently, ahead of the episodes beaming into homes across New Zealand.
There may be a price for fame, however, for having starred in the team - with 18 tries in 26 games over the last two seasons including a biggy in last weekend's 23-16 semi-final win over the Bulldogs - he might be struggling to find any episodes of Shortland Street next year.
He recently signed a contract to play for Melbourne Storm next year.
He has been included in a 30-strong squad for the Storm's payback season in the NRL first grade next year when, because his old club is the only non-Australian entity in the competition, there'll be just a single, albeit two-way, trip across the ditch.
But that's outweighed by the many benefits for Niko, who recently celebrated his 20th birthday with selection in the Junior Kiwis squad, which also includes Melbourne Under-20 player and Hastings prodigy Tohu Harris.
Most dear to his heart is the chance to remember those who made it possible for him to get this far, along with getting younger brother Kenny into the Warriors where he has a new two-year contract, with hopes of also playing Toyota Cup league next year.
Using a manager based in Sydney, and hearing "a lot of good things" about the Storm from Harris and others, Niko had feelers also from the Cowboys and Cronulla Sharks before putting ink to the dotted line to make him a likely regular at the new AAMI Park in Melbourne.
"My parents sacrificed a lot of things to get me where I am," he said, "and the biggest thing with the new contract is that I can now help my family out financially." He also recognises the input of a few others in Hawke's Bay, whom he misses and wants to touch base with before the end of the year.
He went to school at St Patrick's in Napier, then Napier Boys' High School and, finally, St John's College, Hastings, with significant credits along the way in athletics, rugby, rugby league, and volleyball.
Try-scoring had always come easy for Niko, who played on the wing for Napier in the Ross Shield rugby tournament in 2003, winning selection in the Hawke's Bay Primary Schools teams and scoring two tries as the team beat Wellington Primary Schools 15-12, and another two in a 56-0 win over Poverty Bay.
Competing for the Napier Athletics Club the following summer, he was fifth in the 13 years boys' 80 metres hurdles at track and field's North Island Colgate Games in Hastings and won an East Coast North Island secondary schools title in the same event.
Over the following year he made his Hawke's Bay provincial rugby league debut in a Central Districts Under 15 tournament, and with one of his brothers excelled in a series of beach volleyball competitions.
As an extra, in 2003 he had been in a Napier team which tied with North Harbour as 14 teams battled in Hastings for supremacy over a Blue Light police competency course.
His rugby league pathway was set from the moment he first played Hawke's Bay premier grade at 16, and as an EIT player just turned 17 making his Unicorns debut in the Bay's first win in a challenge for league's Ranfurly Shield, the NZRL Challenge Cup.
Having stood out at a Newcastle Knights league camp in Wellington earlier in the year, it was not long before he was signed by the Warriors, and moved to Auckland. Since then he has been compared with former Warriors star Ali Lauitiiti and latest star wing Manu Vatuvei.
Niko will be the second former Napier BHS student to play for Melbourne Storm, following Hep Cahill who, having gone to Australia in 2005 to play for Sydney Roosters feeder club Newtown, made his NRL first grade debut for the Storm last year. Cahill appeared in the World Club Challenge in England before the salary-cap tempest which saw the Storm stripped of their 2009 NRL title.
Now it's Niko's turn for the big-time, with the big noise.
"It gets a bit loud," he concedes, proud that his team has already contributed to the Warriors biggest success, the winning of the club championship for most points across the NRL grades.
There'll be more, he reckons, adding: "As long as we stick to the game plan."
Source: http://news.google.com/news/url?sa=...d-niko-pays-tribute-to-his-bay-roots/3924854/
Doug Laing
2nd October 2010
FORMER Napier schoolboy Elijah Niko fronts up to 80,000 fans tomorrow, but the buildup for the biggest game of his rugby league career is much the same as ever - five episodes of Shortland Street.
It's one of the bonuses of modern in-flight entertainment above the Tasman as he heads with 16 New Zealand Warriors teammates for the NRL's Toyota Cup Under 20 final against the South Sydney Rabbitohs at ANZ Stadium in Sydney, a curtainraiser to the big first-grade clash between the Sydney Roosters and the St George Illawarra Dragons.
"I'm a big fan," said the big Street-watching winger, a 1.92m, 110kg, just-turned-20 version of the kid who did all his schooling in Hawke's Bay. And he played just about every sport going before Mum and Dad Peter and Leoi decided it was time to move to Auckland to give the children their best shot at the big-time and, as it turns out, more chances to watch TV's Kiwi soap.
It's what Niko does to fill in the Air New Zealand flight-time as the team flies to Australia for every second game in what has been a tumultuous season, with the Young Warriors well-placed to be the first from the club to win an NRL final.
He soon found he could fit five episodes into each flight, with the added bonus that they are, apparently, ahead of the episodes beaming into homes across New Zealand.
There may be a price for fame, however, for having starred in the team - with 18 tries in 26 games over the last two seasons including a biggy in last weekend's 23-16 semi-final win over the Bulldogs - he might be struggling to find any episodes of Shortland Street next year.
He recently signed a contract to play for Melbourne Storm next year.
He has been included in a 30-strong squad for the Storm's payback season in the NRL first grade next year when, because his old club is the only non-Australian entity in the competition, there'll be just a single, albeit two-way, trip across the ditch.
But that's outweighed by the many benefits for Niko, who recently celebrated his 20th birthday with selection in the Junior Kiwis squad, which also includes Melbourne Under-20 player and Hastings prodigy Tohu Harris.
Most dear to his heart is the chance to remember those who made it possible for him to get this far, along with getting younger brother Kenny into the Warriors where he has a new two-year contract, with hopes of also playing Toyota Cup league next year.
Using a manager based in Sydney, and hearing "a lot of good things" about the Storm from Harris and others, Niko had feelers also from the Cowboys and Cronulla Sharks before putting ink to the dotted line to make him a likely regular at the new AAMI Park in Melbourne.
"My parents sacrificed a lot of things to get me where I am," he said, "and the biggest thing with the new contract is that I can now help my family out financially." He also recognises the input of a few others in Hawke's Bay, whom he misses and wants to touch base with before the end of the year.
He went to school at St Patrick's in Napier, then Napier Boys' High School and, finally, St John's College, Hastings, with significant credits along the way in athletics, rugby, rugby league, and volleyball.
Try-scoring had always come easy for Niko, who played on the wing for Napier in the Ross Shield rugby tournament in 2003, winning selection in the Hawke's Bay Primary Schools teams and scoring two tries as the team beat Wellington Primary Schools 15-12, and another two in a 56-0 win over Poverty Bay.
Competing for the Napier Athletics Club the following summer, he was fifth in the 13 years boys' 80 metres hurdles at track and field's North Island Colgate Games in Hastings and won an East Coast North Island secondary schools title in the same event.
Over the following year he made his Hawke's Bay provincial rugby league debut in a Central Districts Under 15 tournament, and with one of his brothers excelled in a series of beach volleyball competitions.
As an extra, in 2003 he had been in a Napier team which tied with North Harbour as 14 teams battled in Hastings for supremacy over a Blue Light police competency course.
His rugby league pathway was set from the moment he first played Hawke's Bay premier grade at 16, and as an EIT player just turned 17 making his Unicorns debut in the Bay's first win in a challenge for league's Ranfurly Shield, the NZRL Challenge Cup.
Having stood out at a Newcastle Knights league camp in Wellington earlier in the year, it was not long before he was signed by the Warriors, and moved to Auckland. Since then he has been compared with former Warriors star Ali Lauitiiti and latest star wing Manu Vatuvei.
Niko will be the second former Napier BHS student to play for Melbourne Storm, following Hep Cahill who, having gone to Australia in 2005 to play for Sydney Roosters feeder club Newtown, made his NRL first grade debut for the Storm last year. Cahill appeared in the World Club Challenge in England before the salary-cap tempest which saw the Storm stripped of their 2009 NRL title.
Now it's Niko's turn for the big-time, with the big noise.
"It gets a bit loud," he concedes, proud that his team has already contributed to the Warriors biggest success, the winning of the club championship for most points across the NRL grades.
There'll be more, he reckons, adding: "As long as we stick to the game plan."
Source: http://news.google.com/news/url?sa=...d-niko-pays-tribute-to-his-bay-roots/3924854/
