By LIZ MOORE

Rohan Saifoloi credits his move home to Brisbane and Brothers with reigniting his love for the game. It’s a spark he will carry with him on to the field this weekend in the Brothers v GPS ‘Derby’ at Ashgrove.

The 28-year-old flyhalf has had an extensive representative career, including touring with the Samoan international side in Europe, playing Mitre 10 Cup in New Zealand, NRC and Australian Schools.

Moving back to his hometown of Brisbane to be closer to family and to play for Brothers last year has given him the drive to keep playing.

“Being a bit later in my career I just wanted to be around family and play in front of my family,” Saifoloi said.

“I was kind of thinking about hanging the boots up to be honest, but I think having that year last year brought a lot of passion and enjoyment into the game again for me.

“A really good group of boys and coaching staff, I just found the love for the game again. That’s why I decided to stay on for one more year this year and have a run.

“It’s been awesome. Last year we made the GF and just went down,” he said of Brothers 31-26 loss to UQ.

“We had really good coaching staff. I really enjoyed playing under Rod Seib, he was a really good coach. It was just a really fun year for me.”

Saifoloi has a lot of finals footy experience, having made at least the semi-finals of the Shute Shield in every one of the eight years he played for Southern Districts in Sydney.

That is something the senior playmaker will be drawing on for Brothers throughout this shortened season.

“You only get one shot this season,” he said. “Every game’s got to be treated like a grand final, and you can’t go easy on any team.

“It’s going to be pretty tough, to be honest, at Yoku Rd,” Saifoloi said of GPS’ home-ground advantage this weekend.

“We’ve just got to roll up our sleeves, and make sure everyone’s in the game mentally, everyone’s across their roles and we’ve just got to go hard.

“I think if the boys just trust our systems, especially, and come prepared individually, we’ll be all right. We’ll be in for it.”

As one of the core leadership group, Saifoloi will use his pivotal position on the field to steer his younger players through.

“I like to try and use all the experience I’ve had over the years and try and help the younger boys just keep as calm as they can be in the situation and try and understand playing at the Premier Grade level.

“Especially being a No.10, I guess. Just trying to steer the boys around and give as much advice and pass on the knowledge I received from guys who were a lot older than me when I was first starting out.”

Comparing the Brisbane and Sydney competitions, Saifoloi said Queensland had more youth, yet the standard remains very high.

“I found it really tough last year, especially the finals time. It was really tough going there, so I reckon the standard’s really good up here.”

IMAGE: BRENDAN HERTEL / QRU