Hammer will meet hammer when Tonga faces Samoa in the most anticipated clash of The Rugby League World Cup.
Hamiso Tabuai-Fidow, known as ‘The Hammer’, will battle a Tongan squad which includes Talatau Amone, who won The Frownlow Medal in 2023 after threatening someone with a hammer.
The Frownlow Medal is awarded to the player whose off-field demeanour epitomises the values of the modern-day footballer and draws attention to the status of footballers as role models to young Australians. It covers Australia’s four major football codes: the men’s and women’s National Rugby League (NRL), Australian Football League (AFL), the A-League (Football) and Rugby Union’s Super Rugby competition. NRL player Shaun Kenny-Dowall won the inaugural medal in 2015, while AFL player Noah Balta is the most recent recipient.
Amone was banished from the NRL in 2023 after he armed himself with a hammer and chased a tradesman across a two-storey rooftop. The man fell, suffering serious injuries. The young half was charged with one count each of reckless grievous bodily harm in company, damaging property, and intimidation. He was ordered to report to police three times a week and remain at home unless playing with the Dragons, and he served time in Silverwater prison.
The playmaker was eventually found guilty and sentenced to two years imprisonment by way of an intensive corrections order and 300 hours of community service
Amone has returned to the Tonga squad for the world cup and is attempting to return to the NRL. If he is selected for Tonga against their arch-rivals, will he bring out the hammer? Tabui-Fidow is one of the fastest and most elusive players at the tournament, and hitting him with a hammer might be the only way to stop the flying fullback.
Amone has already made history as the only medallist to make a world cup squad after winning the Frownlow. Shaun Kenny-Dowall, who won the inaugural medal in 2015, played for New Zealand, while fellow medallists Jarryd Hayne and Karmichael Hunt also played in a world cup, and Hunt is at the tournament this year coaching the Cook Islands team. However, none of these medallists played at a world cup after winning the most prestigious prize in Australian sport.
Rugby League fans can’t wait to see what happens when hammer meets hammer.
Image: David Cruz Naira
