League: Doting Toopi embraces surrogate family

Clinton Toopi's return to the National Rugby League (NRL) isn't without its contradictions: the former Kiwis star is an absentee parent while playing the role of father figure.

After more than 100 matches for the New Zealand Warriors, Toopi is an expectant debutant again, resurrecting his career on the Gold Coast after chronic knee and shoulder injuries raised the prospect of life - and some form of employment - after league.

Fortunately, the 29-year-old convinced the Titans to take a punt on his experience and surgically enhanced knees, although the tradeoff is only webcam contact with his pre-school daughters Waimania and Brianna.

Toopi's wife Turenga was reluctant to shift the girls from the familiar surrounds of Bay of Plenty to the bright lights of Surfers Paradise until the centre's contract contained a degree of permanency.

For now Toopi is signed for the 2010 season, a year where he hopes to eventually start alongside old adversary Mat Rogers and maybe justify another 12 months of first-grade football.

"It's the hardest thing ever. Thankfully there's Skype," Toopi said of leaving his girls behind.

"If I stay on my wife will look at coming over. At this stage they'll only come over for the school holidays."

That's a month away, about the timeframe Toopi has given himself to muscle into John Cartwright's starting line-up.

Capped 21 times for the Kiwis between 2001-07, Toopi is currently ranked behind a potential New Zealand international, Wellingtonian Joseph Tomane.

The 20-year-old is among the Titan's array of maturing backline talent, an exuberance of youth tempered by the on-field savvy of Rogers, Scott Prince, Preston Campbell and when required, Toopi.

Aware they had a cast of future stars lurking out wide, Titans management contracted Toopi primarily as a mentor for the Maori and Polynesian boys, an old pro to learn from, and in some ways an example not to follow.

"I'll do my best to help them get to where there want to be," Toopi told NZPA ahead of Sunday's opening round match against with the Warriors at Robina's Skilled Park.

"`There are guys in this team that can be like the (Israel) Folaus or a Greg Inglises.

"The wingers and centres here have so much talent and they've got speed to burn. They've pretty much got it all, they just have to get it right in the head and anything could happen for them."

His message is straightforward.

"At an elite level there's no room for short cuts, and if I can impress that on the boys they'll be so much better for it."

It's pretty much the advice Matthew Ridge and Richie Blackmore gave a teenaged Toopi when he made his first-grade debut for the Auckland Warriors in 1999.

"Ridgey took me under his wing and when he left Richie trained me up to be mentally tough and strong. Those guys stood out for me, I was still a bit loose then."

However, Toopi didn't act on all those pearls of wisdom, a mistake he doesn't want repeated by Tomane, Kevin Gordon and David Mead.

"When I came to the Warriors I had X amount of opportunities to get an education or just develop some skills for life after footy," he said. "I sort of didn't do any of that, it was always 'next year, next year '...

"I'm encouraging these boys not to wait until you're my age to starting to think 'man, I better start doing something'.

"Throughout my career I had guys like Nigel Vagana saying 'have a back-up plan'.

"When you're younger you think you're bulletproof and then 10 years slide by ... maybe I should have listened." Toopi realised the folly of focusing exclusively on football when he was released by Leeds in 2008 to undergo knee and shoulder reconstructions.

He relocated to Whakatane and made the Bay of Plenty rugby squad last year only for his knees to play up again.

"Once I finalise if I'm settled here for a couple of years my focus is working towards a business degree," Toopi said.

"It might be a bit far-fetched, but something along those lines."