In Joseph Suaalii Australian rugby has something it so desperately needs

Joseph Suaalii will not begin playing for the Wallabies until 2025 but make no mistake: he started working for Rugby Australia the moment news broke of his signing.

Suaalii will become the standard bearer for rugby’s new golden age, Australia’s poster boy for the 2027 Rugby World Cup, for leading the women’s game to professionalism and for restoring growth at the grassroots across the nation.

RA has shelled out a reported $1.6m per season for Suaalii, a 19-year-old NRL rookie yet to make his first-grade rugby debut. If true, it is in excess of what all-time legends Dustin Martin, Nat Fyfe and Lance Franklin earn annually in the AFL, and more than the Australian captain James Tedesco and a marquee player Latrell Mitchell make each year in the NRL.

Michael Hooper, who has played 121 Tests for the Wallabies over 11 years, including more than 60 as captain, all while propping up an ailing code from the engine room and bearing the scars of 10,000 rucks and mauls along the way, currently earns 25% less than Suaalii will be paid.

Is he 4000% better than other prodigies who fight through juniors, subbies and first grade to win a $40k Super Rugby contract? Many experts across union, league and athletics, sayyes.

Plucked from the hardscrabble Penrith suburb of Glenmore Park, he became a school boy star, leading a GPS first XV while in South Sydney’s Harold Matthews Cup side. Along the way, Suaalii broke Australia’s high jump record for 12-year-old boys.

After selection to the New South Wales Schoolboys and Australian under-18s Sevens rugby sides, RA tried to lock the already-highly-sought-after teenager down – the Wallabies coach at the time, Dave Rennie, took a meeting to no avail. Instead, Suaalii shocked everybody by turning