Esikeli Tonga (born 5 February 1988) is a former

Tonga Tonga, officially the Kingdom of Tonga, is an island country in Polynesia, part of Oceania. The country has 171 islands, of which 45 are inhabited. Its total surface area is about , scattered over in the southern Pacific Ocean. accordin ...

international

rugby league Rugby league football, commonly known as rugby league in English-speaking countries and rugby 13/XIII in non-Anglophone Europe, is a contact sport, full-contact sport played by two teams of thirteen players on a rectangular Rugby league playin ...

footballer who last previously played for the

Manly-Warringah Sea Eagles The Manly Warringah Sea Eagles are an Australian professional rugby league club based in Sydney's Northern Beaches. They compete in the National Rugby League (NRL). The Manly club debuted in the 1947 New South Wales Rugby Football League sea ...

in the

National Rugby League The National Rugby League (also known as the NRL Telstra Premiership for sponsorship reasons) is a professional rugby league competition in Oceania which contains clubs from New South Wales, Queensland, Victoria (state), Victoria, the Austral ...

. A

n international representative three-quarter or second-rower, he is the younger brother of

Parramatta Eels The Parramatta Eels are an Australian professional rugby league football club based in the Sydney suburb of Parramatta that competes in the National Rugby League (NRL). The Parramatta District Rugby League Football Club was formed in 1947, and ...

centre

Willie Tonga Villiami Sione "Willie" Tonga (born 8 August 1983), also known by the nickname of ”Willie", is an Australian former professional rugby league footballer who last played for the Leigh Centurions in the Super League. An Australia international ...

Background

Tonga was born in

Dubbo, New South Wales Dubbo (; ) is a city in the Orana (New South Wales), Orana Region of New South Wales, Australia. It is the largest population centre in the Orana region, with a population of 43,516 at June 2021. The city is located at the intersection of the ...

Australia Australia, officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country comprising mainland Australia, the mainland of the Australia (continent), Australian continent, the island of Tasmania and list of islands of Australia, numerous smaller isl ...

. He is of both

Australian Aboriginal Aboriginal Australians are the various indigenous peoples of the Mainland Australia, Australian mainland and many of its islands, excluding the ethnically distinct people of the Torres Strait Islands. Humans first migrated to Australia (co ...

and

n descent. In 2005 Tonga graduated from

Marsden State High School Marsden State High School (MSHS) is a public co-educational secondary school located in the Logan City suburb of Waterford West, Queensland, Australia. It is administered by the Department of Education, with an enrolment of 3,702 students and ...

Logan City The City of Logan is a local government area (LGA) located in the south of Greater Brisbane in South East Queensland (SEQ), Australia. Situated between the City of Brisbane to the north and the City of Gold Coast to the south, the City of Lo ...

Playing career

Tonga made his first grade debut for the Gold Coast against Cronulla-Sutherland in round 12 of the

2008 NRL season The 2008 NRL season was the 101st season of professional rugby league club competition in Australia, and the eleventh run by the National Rugby League. For the second year, sixteen teams competed for the 2008 Telstra Premiership title. The sea ...

Shark Park Endeavour Field, known colloquially as Shark Park or Sharks Stadium, is a rugby league stadium in the southern Sydney suburb of Woolooware, New South Wales, Australia. It is the home ground of the Cronulla-Sutherland Rugby League Club, which re ...

. In August 2008, Tonga was named in the Tonga training squad for the

2008 Rugby League World Cup The 2008 Rugby League World Cup was the thirteenth World Cup for men’s rugby league national teams. It was held between 26 October and 22 November and was won by New Zealand, who defeated Australia 34–20 in the final in one of the greatest ...

, and in October 2008 he was named in the final 24-man

squad. In the

2009 NRL season The 2009 NRL season was the 102nd season of professional rugby league football club competition in Australia, and the twelfth run by the National Rugby League. For the third consecutive year, sixteen teams competed for the 2009 Telstra Premiersh ...

, Tonga played 16 games as the Gold Coast reached the finals for the first time but Tonga missed out through injury. Tonga missed the entire

2010 NRL season The 2010 NRL season was the 103rd season of professional rugby league football club competition in Australia, and the thirteenth run by the National Rugby League (NRL). The season commenced on 12 March and ended with the grand final, played on 3 ...

but returned in 2011. Tonga played 12 games for the Gold Coast in 2011 as the club finished last and claimed the wooden spoon. In the

2012 NRL season The 2012 NRL season was the 105th season of professional rugby league club competition in Australia, and the first run by the newly formed Australian Rugby League Commission. The main competition, called the 2012 NRL Telstra Premiership due to spon ...

, Tonga joined Parramatta. Tonga only managed to make three appearances for the club as they finished last on the table for the first time since 1972 and claimed the wooden spoon. In 2013, Tonga joined Manly-Warringah but only made one appearance for the club before being released.

References

External links

Gold Coast Titans profile
{{DEFAULTSORT:Tonga, Esi 1988 births Living people Australian rugby league players Australian sportspeople of Tongan descent Gold Coast Titans players Indigenous Australian rugby league players 21st-century Indigenous Australian people Manly Warringah Sea Eagles players Parramatta Eels players Rugby league centres Rugby league players from Dubbo Tonga national rugby league team players Tongan rugby league players Wentworthville Magpies players 21st-century Australian sportsmen