24 November 2022

2022 sees the return of the prestigious Pirtek Volunteer of the Month award, where our rugby league community gets a chance to see their hard mahi recognised across the motu. This award is gifted to a volunteer who displays the core values of NZRL’s Kiwi Way: being family first, innovative, inclusive, respectful, respectful and humble. We are excited to announce that the final winner of 2022 and the month of November is Siosiua Kailahi.

Siosiua Kailahi delves his hat into many roles across the rugby league community. Kailahi is the head coach for the U13 Wolfpack rugby league side, the U13 Hakula Tonga representative side, the St. Pauls Junior squad while also holding roles with the New Zealand Canterbury Bulldogs academy and U18s Dean Bell North White side (Assistant coach).

Dedicated to a role where he works with young men, Kailahi is much more than a coach. Siosuia acts as a role model, counsellor, mentor and father figure to all the youth that oversees. For Sosh (as he is known), it is more than just rugby league. The game is a vehicle that allows him to connect and mentor teenagers into becoming men. It is about how they represent themselves and their families on and off the pitch.

Sosh encourages the boys he coaches to be accountable, to be respectful and, most importantly, to be connected.

His energy never wavers between the three teams he coaches, and his efforts show that rugby league can be a driver for creating young role models in the community.

Pirtek CEO Chris Bourke commented on Kailahi, “Siosiua Kailahi is a worthy winner of the Pirtek Volunteer of the Month award for November. Kailahi displays and delivers on all of the core values of NZRL’s Kiwi Way.

He is innovative with his coaching methods and values respect and humility in his teams. Importantly, Siosuia is humble and teaches the young boys to be modest in life via his involvement with the teams he is associated with.“

Volunteers need to be recognised for their commitment and dedication, and Siosiua epitomises those values.

Congratulations Siosiua!