Having once walked away from the game because he was too big, Sam Kasiano has discovered the perfect mix of size and skill.
It was a sunny day in Brisbane when Peter Mulholland first noticed Sam Kasiano. The then Bulldogs recruitment guru was passing his eye over the talent at Norths Devils and, as you’d expect from a kid who grew up to be Kasiano’s current size, there was something about him that stood out.
“When I first saw him, I just couldn’t believe how big he was,” says Mulholland, now scouting the Hunter for future stars for Wayne Bennett’s Knights. “He’s just enormous… he’s a big human being. And for a big man he had great feet at that time.
Mulholland’s disbelief that no one in Queensland had noticed the talent in the young man was quickly chalked up as the Bulldogs’ gain.
Born in Auckland, Kasiano picked up league as a youngster before giving it up for a few years because of the awkward size advantage he had over his peers. But a move to Brisbane in his teens reignited his love for the game, and a contract with the Bulldogs brought him under the tutelage of club trainer Garry Carden, who Mulholland credits for Kasiano bursting onto the scene the way that he has.
Kasiano popped straight into the Toyota Cup in 2010, playing 22 games and killing it with an average of 150m per game and a total of 83 tackle-breaks. The ’Dogs knew they had something special but as his coach that year Andy Patmore explains, it was the structures at the club that helped mould Kasiano into a mature person on and off the field.
“His first year for us he was very raw, so we had to work on little skill things and a bit of discipline in everyday life,” Patmore says. “He was a bit loose – that’s probably the best way to put it – and he worked really hard with that. On the field, it was a matter of when to bring in the ball-playing and when not to do it. He wanted to play touch football all the time.
In the process of getting Kasiano ready for first grade, Patmore learned the secret to keeping the gentle giant on the straight and narrow.
“We found the secret to him was always talking to mum,” he says. “Mum was the person in the family to speak to if Sam was having a bit of hassle in life, and she’s been fantastic over the years.
“In his last contract negotiation it wasn’t so much his manager we dealt with, it was more his mum. She was happy with what we offered on and off the field, about Sam’s growing up in life and footy.
The best part of this story is that the 196cm, 122kg Kasiano is only really a pup but is playing with the confidence of a veteran forward, which Patmore credits to his relaxed personality.