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Solomona feels Eels' pain far from home By Brad Walter
October 13, 2005
Team spirit David Solomona in his Eels days.
Photo: Craig Golding
Since moving to England last season, David Solomona has hardly seen a NRL game but he did watch Parramatta's finals capitulation to North Queensland last month and it was among the toughest 80 minutes the former Eels forward has endured as a spectator.
Solomona, who was recalled to the New Zealand side this week after a three-year absence, tries to distance himself from football outside of playing and training but he still has a soft spot for Parramatta and said yesterday the minor premiers' 29-0 thrashing had stunned him.
"I watched that game but it was hard to watch," Solomona said yesterday. "I'm still a Parramatta supporter. I've been through a few clubs but I feel like they're my team. I learnt a lot about myself as a person and as a footballer when I was at Parramatta.
"I probably regard Brian Smith as the best coach I've ever had. I learnt a lot from him and I still keep in contact with a lot of the boys, so I really felt for them in that game. But that's the way it goes, I suppose.
"The Cowboys played really good football and I don't think Parramatta could have played any worse. It's just disappointing that a team can go through a whole season and finish top of the table then lose one game in the play-offs and get knocked out."
Still regarded as one of the best ball-playing forwards in the game, 27-year-old Solomona received offers from Gold Coast, Manly and South Sydney this year. He said he was tempted to return to Australia but was now likely to finish his career in the English Super League.
With his wife, Utu, and their young daughters, Naomi and Faith, settled at Wakefield, the less-intense football environment suits him and he has a solid group of friends among the expatriate league community in England's north.
"It's a whole different lifestyle over there and to be honest the change was probably something that I needed," Solomona said. "I was fortunate enough to play in the 2001 grand final with Parramatta and the 2000 grand final with the Roosters and even though I didn't win either of them, I don't know that I needed to come back to prove anything.
"I think it probably suits my style of football over there and I've got a clique of friends who I am really close to. It's not just the Kiwi boys but guys like [Bradford's] Brad Meyers and Ben Harris, who I didn't really know before, and [Leeds pair] Marcus Bai and Chris McKenna.
"We go to dinner once every six weeks. Last year [who paid] came down to whoever had the least amount of tries but we had to change that because [Bradford prop] Joe Vagana was averaging one try a year and the wingers were pretty much getting a free ride. But we don't really talk about football.
"Whenever anyone brings up football, someone will yell out, 'Mate, leave your football at home' and football is pretty much banned from my house.
"I like to keep my house rugby league-free so there's no newspapers, no TV I try to keep as far away from it as I can. It's something I started doing before I went over there."
Needless to say, Solomona didn't follow up his viewing of the Eels-Cowboys match by reading the subsequent analysis of Parramatta's performance.
http://www.smh.com.au/news/league/solomona-feels-eels-pain-far-from-home/2005/10/12/1128796589340.html
