ROUGHLY half of all today’s NRL players are of Maori or Pacific descent, but back in 1980, there were just four such four players, of which Olsen Filipaina was one.
Racially abused by opponents and crowds and treated badly by his coaches, Filipaina spent seven unhappy seasons with Balmain, Eastern Suburbs and North Sydney. But when he pulled on the Kiwi jumper, we saw the best of him, notably in 1985 when he outplayed the great Wally Lewis in all three Tests of an incredible trans-Tasman series.