It’s the question that has been fizzing around rugby league circles for the past two years, and has only grown louder at the business end of the season: what can’t Roosters superstar Mark Nawaqanitawase do?
asserted
Nawaqanitawase → ’ → what
Well, his mother has a few answers.
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mother → have → answers
Putting clothes in the washing machine remains a work in progress.
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Putting → put → progress
Making the bed can apparently present its challenges, too.
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Making → make → challenges
And if anyone is qualified to explain the making of one of Australia’s most exciting footballers, it is Fiona Tovehi, who has spent 26 years watching her son turn almost anything he could get his hands on into a ball.
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he → explain → ball
She’s also one of the few people allowed – or game enough – to take a cheeky dig at her son’s defensive capabilities
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one → allow → capabilities
“He’s not domesticated at all,” Tovehi says of her son, who still lives at home and hauls a bulging Roosters bag into the laundry after training each day.
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who → domesticate → training
“The kid has got it pretty good.
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it → get → ?
He’s going to get a rude shock when he goes to Japan.”
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he → go → Japan
Before his two-season sojourn in Japanese rugby, and a likely tilt with the Wallabies at next year’s Rugby World Cup, Nawaqanitawase has one rather significant piece of business left in rugby league.
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Nawaqanitawase → have → league
“I’m feeling chill,” Nawaqanitawase says ahead of Sunday’s clash against Newcastle.
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Nawaqanitawase → feel → Newcastle
It is the latest entry on an already ridiculous sporting CV: a Super Rugby debut in 2020; a Commonwealth Games berth in rugby sevens in Birmingham in 2022; a Wallabies debut against Italy in Florence later that year; a Rugby World Cup in France in 2023; a maiden Olympics in Paris in 2024; an NRL debut in September that year; a Kangaroos debut in late 2025; State of Origin series winner in 2026; and now one game away from becoming an NRL champion.
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It → become → 2026
Yet to understand how Nawaqanitawase got here – the outrageous aerial skills, the hand-eye coordination, the ability to make the difficult look absurdly simple – you have to return to a backyard in Burwood.
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you → understand → Burwood
There was always a ball in his hands: rugby, soccer, basketball – it hardly mattered.
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it → be → hands
Getting him inside for bath time became a nightly battle.
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Getting → get → time
His mother repeatedly told him he wasn’t allowed to play league.
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he → tell → league
He did briefly, turning out for Concord-Burwood Wolves and Leichhardt Wanderers, before switching to rugby union in high school.
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He → do → school
Even when the Roosters came calling in 2024, offering him the chance to walk away from the Waratahs and Wallabies, Tovehi gave her son the cold shoulder for two weeks.
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Tovehi → call → weeks
It has become one of rugby league’s more spectacular backflips.
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It → become → backflips
“I was so against it,” she says.
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she → say → it
“I tormented him.
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I → torment → him
I kept saying to him, ‘No, you’re not going, too dangerous.
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you → keep → him
You’re going to make a fool of yourself.’
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You → go → yourself
“It’s a dream, a fairytale.
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It → ’ → ?
I would have never dreamed he’s in an NRL grand final.
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he → dream → final
League is made for my son.
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League → make → son
“I actually thanked [Roosters coach] Trent Robinson last week.
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I → thank → Robinson
When he came to league, he couldn’t tackle; his defence was quite weak.
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defence → come → league
But they’ve developed him to be an amazing athlete.
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they → develop → him
But there was a moment, during a “shocking” time for the family, when Tovehi realised her son had made the right decision to join the Roosters.
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son → be → Roosters
As Nawaqanitawase prepared to transition to rugby league following his Olympic campaign in Paris, his stepfather, Aisake, died after a battle with cancer.
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stepfather → prepare → cancer
“It was very hard for Mark,” Tovehi says.
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Tovehi → say → Mark
“My husband was always there for him and mentoring him.
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husband → mentor → him
Rugby league was an unknown journey that we were both embarking on without him.”
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we → embark → him
Then, at Aisake’s funeral, two unexpected faces appeared.
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faces → appear → funeral
Jared Waerea-Hargreaves, the fearsome Roosters enforcer, arrived unannounced in a suit.
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Hargreaves → arrive → suit
They had known Nawaqanitawase for a matter of days.
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They → know → days
John Georges, a close family friend and the father of one Nawaqanitawase’s best mates, remembers Tovehi beginning to “shake and cry” when she saw Waerea-Hargreaves.
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she → remember → Hargreaves
“Jared grabbed Fiona and said, ‘I know you are worried, but I will personally look after your son’,” Georges recalls.
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Georges → grab → son
“The Roosters sent flowers to their house.
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Roosters → send → house
…and 84 more, not listed.
The Aporia
