Sharks star reflects on 'ugly' Origin eligibility saga

Sharks winger Ronaldo Mulitalo has opened up on the State of Origin eligibility saga that has overshadowed his representative career.

During the 2021 series, Mulitalo was selected to make his Origin debut for the Maroons in game two.

The talented speedster, then 21, had been parachuted into the Queensland camp after replacing Xavier Coates in the side.

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But in the days leading up to the game, NSW Rugby League lodged a formal complaint about Mulitalo's inclusion in the Queensland side, questioning whether he was eligible to represent the state.

Mulitalo grew up in South Auckland before moving with his family to Queensland when he was 14.

Under the current eligibility rules, to qualify to play Origin a player must have lived in either state before they turned 13 if they were not born there or had a father who played Origin.

After an investigation, Mulitalo was ruled ineligible to play Origin on the day of game two.

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Speaking on Nine's Marlee & Me podcast, in an episode that will drop on Monday September 16, Mulitalo shared how he looks back on the controversy.

"The boys still give me stick about it a little bit, which is good. You've got to laugh about it now," he said.

"Not many people can say they got bounced from Origin on the day of.

"I've still got the jersey too. I've got a bit of history hanging up in my closet."

Mulitalo still feels that the NRL and the Maroons failed to accept responsibility for the error given he had been permitted to represent Queensland at the junior Origin level.

Through another pathway to the top side, once a player has played Origin at under-18 or under-20 level, their state of eligibility is confirmed. However, this did not apply to Mulitalo.

He was scarred by the experience, believing that the NRL and the Maroons' narrative was then peddled by the media.

"The worst thing about the Origin saga was, I don't know who it was — one of the reporters — he went in and said I was a liar and said I lied on my forms," he said.

"When the forms went out, I went to my club and I said, 'Never did I ever lie on those forms. Go and check the forms properly and bring them out'.

"We checked all the forms and I said, 'Look, I answered it all correctly the whole way through. Youse picked me [at U20 level] so that made me eligible, so I picked yes on the eligibility form the next year'."

Mulitalo said he was "filthy" and it was "burning" him that they "portrayed me as a liar to save their own arses".

"Then my family just wanted to turn around and say, 'Wait, before you start running your mouth' And that's when it started getting a bit ugly," he said.

"The media portrayed their paperwork, and they only showed like this little bit and dangled the carrot like, 'Oh, look at him. He's a liar'. And I was just like, 'You missed the whole beginning of it'.

"That was the hardest one to let go."https://omny.fm/shows/marlee-and-me/jordan-riki/embed?in_playlist=podcast

Following his axing, Mulitalo returned to the Sharks to be with his teammates.

"The club was like, 'Do you want to go home and spend time with your family and be away from the game?' and I said, 'That would make it worse, I need to be around my teammates'," Mulitalo said.

"That's where I draw energy from, I draw it from them and they draw it from me.

"Anytime it's gotten hard for me, anytime I've struggled with footy stuff, the club knows that I just need to be around my teammates."

He said he didn't need anyone to "pamper" him.

"The club was good, they said, 'Look, its happened. Whatever.' None of my teammates asked me what happened. They just got on with life like usual," he said.

"And that's the thing about footy, it keeps ticking along. A new week, a new problem that you've got to solve, right.

"For me, I was just really happy that I could get back into the [Sharks] system straight away."

Mulitalo has since gone on to represent New Zealand eight times on the international stage.