Sad Loss...

[imported_Hazy]

Alamoni 'Moni' Taione, Manly's freewheeling Tongan, will be missed by all</HEADLINE>
<BYLINE>By PHIL WILKINS,</BYLINE><CREDITLINE>The Sydney Morning Herald</CREDITLINE>
<DATE>Friday, August 23, 2002</DATE><WOF> </WOF>
<table cellspacing=1 cellpadding=2 border=0> <tbody> <tr> <td nowrap bgcolor=#333366>email to a friend</td> <td nowrap bgcolor=#333366>printer version</td></tr></tbody></table> <hr width="100%" size=1> <table cellspacing=1 cellpadding=3 width="10%" align=right bgcolor=#dadada border=0> <tbody> <tr> <td align=middle bgcolor=#f4f4f4>

</td></tr> <tr> <td align=left bgcolor=#f4f4f4></td></tr></tbody></table>&lt;BOD> They called him "Moni", a Tongan kid from Sydney's northern beaches with a raw, natural talent, who played No8 and for years kept banging into and knocking over another outstanding back-rower, Phil Waugh. Each Saturday morning for years, Ian MacDonald would pile him into his car with a swarm of other boys and line them up for the Vikings. But when Waugh set his mind on playing for Australia, training and devoting himself to playing for Shore, the GPS, NSW and the Wallabies, Alamoni Taione preferred the social side of football, doubling up in codes at the weekend, rugby on Saturday, league on Sunday, invariably late for training, relishing the game without letting it dominate him. He stayed true to his old coach, MacDonald, from kids' stuff to colts and then grade, enjoying himself. Often, when he played too well and won promotion, he would miss training on Tuesday night, just to get himself put down a grade on Thursday night, back with MacDonald's side. Waratah-recently-turned-ACT-Brumby Mark Gerrard said of his cousin: "Moni could have been a great player if he'd knuckled down to training. But he just enjoyed the mateship of the game. "He was a lump of a guy, someone you tried to avoid on the field, on the attack or in defence. He could be really dominate. "Moni was a wild child as a young bloke, but he calmed down with the baby. He became a gentle giant, a delight to be with anywhere, anytime of day." Former Manly prop and captain Tui Malifa said: "Moni was pretty quick and tackled hard, about 100 kilograms, very quiet until you got to know him and he got to know you. Then he would blossom out. Heaps of talent." Heaps of talent, not bursting with ambition. Moni was something like Joe Sitoa, his Manly third-grade coach. Joe was big and tough and mobile, a long-time clubman, a second-rower from reserve grade they sometimes called up when a first-grader was injured. Tim Lane saw something in Joe and when Manly played the grand final in 1997, Joe turned on a performance which was breathtaking, playing like the free-running Wallaby lock or back-rower who had thought about getting out of a reserve-grade body for years, but couldn't be bothered. Moni played first grade last year and then dropped back into lower grades, making his coach's eyes roll the way he turned up late for training. And, inevitably late, were his club fees. Moni never got his navy blue Manly shorts until he paid up, so he wore white. Early in the morning of last Sunday week, Moni was celebrating Beacon Hill's minor premiership win at his rugby league coach's home when he rocked back on a chair and overbalanced from a balcony, falling 12 metres, striking his head on a wheelaway bin, sustaining massive head wounds. Ambulance people reached him in the lane to find him bleeding from the ears. The whole Tongan community on the northern peninsula, a close-knit body of people, was shattered by the loss. To lose him was to lose a member of family. Manly's president Brian Beer said of him: "He loved his footy. Always tough, but always fair. Whenever he played, the opposition said, 'Stop Moni!' He was a wonderful clubman. We held him so high in regard we have retired his jumper." Last weekend, Manly's third-graders marked their respect for Moni by wearing not black armbands but white shorts. Tonight, Moni's family will pay tribute to their son. Tomorrow morning at 8.30, a funeral service will be held at St David's Uniting Church, Dee Why, before moving to Mona Vale cemetery. And despite the tragic loss of a good man, the greatest tragedy of all is that a three-year-old girl has been left without a father. &lt;/BOD> <hr width="100%" size=1>