The Second Phase

Sione Faumuina was, for several years, seen as the bad boy of league. He constantly hit the headlines for all the wrong reasons. Then he disappeared from public view, he got his life sorted, stopped drinking, got a job and has started a family.  He has now been dry for more than two years and knows he can’t drink again because his life as he knows it would be over . He says “I’m too scared to ever take that risk’

The reason he wrote The Second Phase and laid bare his own battles against alcoholism and depression is that it’s still happening. He knows if he had asked for help he would have got it and his life may well have gone in a different direction so he wants to encourage those young men to put their hand up and ask.

The Second Phase tells Sione’s story, from childhood, through professional sport in both hemispheres, to the life of a blue collar worker; to starting a business, and a family, in Australia. Sione pulls no punches, unveiling his own shortcomings for all to see, while also shedding light on aspects of rugby league which reveal the code’s struggles with the new professionalism, and its failure to confront issues surrounding the emergence of a tsunami of Polynesian talent. Sione is not finished with rugby league. He is part of the coaching staff at Brisbane club, Easts, which has strong links with Melbourne Storm. At 35, Sione Faumuina has many chapters to write, but he appears to be on the right path, and this autobiography is a courageous part of his transformation.

The Second Phase | Sione Faumuina

ISBN: 9780473370664

^RRP$29.99