Malakai Watene-Zelezniak (born 27 August 1991) is a former

rugby league Rugby league football, commonly known as just rugby league and sometimes football, footy, rugby or league, is a full-contact sport played by two teams of thirteen players on a rectangular field measuring 68 metres (75 yards) wide and 112 ...

footballer who played on the . He played for the

Penrith Panthers The Penrith Panthers are an Australian professional rugby league football club based in the western Sydney suburb of Penrith that competes in the NRL. The team is based west of the centre of Sydney, at the foot of the Blue Mountains. Penrith ...

in two separate spells, and the

Wests Tigers The Wests Tigers are an Australian professional Rugby league, rugby league football team, based in the Inner West and South West Sydney. They have competed in the National Rugby League since being formed at the end of the 1999 NRL season as a j ...

in the

NRL The National Rugby League (NRL) is an Australasian rugby league club competition which contains clubs from New South Wales, Queensland, Victoria, the Australian Capital Territory and New Zealand. The NRL formed in 1998 as a joint partnership ...

. Watene-Zelezniak briefly played

rugby union Rugby union, commonly known simply as rugby, is a close-contact team sport that originated at Rugby School in the first half of the 19th century. One of the two codes of rugby football, it is based on running with the ball in hand. In its m ...

for the

New South Wales Country Eagles The New South Wales Country Eagles is an Australian rugby union football team competes in the National Rugby Championship (NRC). The team was founded by a group of patrons associated with country rugby in New South Wales. The Eagles team plays ...

in the

National Rugby Championship The National Rugby Championship, known as NRC, was an Australian rugby union competition. It was contested by eight teams, seven from Australia and one from Fiji. The tournament ran from 2014 until 2019 before being disbanded in 2020 following t ...

Background

Watene-Zelezniak was born in

Sydney Sydney ( ) is the capital city of the state of New South Wales, and the most populous city in both Australia and Oceania. Located on Australia's east coast, the metropolis surrounds Sydney Harbour and extends about towards the Blue Mountain ...

New South Wales ) , nickname = , image_map = New South Wales in Australia.svg , map_caption = Location of New South Wales in AustraliaCoordinates: , subdivision_type = Country , subdivision_name = Australia , established_title = Before federation , es ...

Australia Australia, officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a Sovereign state, sovereign country comprising the mainland of the Australia (continent), Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous List of islands of Australia, sma ...

, and is of

Māori Māori or Maori can refer to: Relating to the Māori people * Māori people of New Zealand, or members of that group * Māori language, the language of the Māori people of New Zealand * Māori culture * Cook Islanders, the Māori people of the C ...

Tonga Tonga (, ; ), officially the Kingdom of Tonga ( to, Puleʻanga Fakatuʻi ʻo Tonga), is a Polynesian country and archipelago. The country has 171 islands – of which 45 are inhabited. Its total surface area is about , scattered over in ...

n and

Polish Polish may refer to: * Anything from or related to Poland, a country in Europe * Polish language * Poles, people from Poland or of Polish descent * Polish chicken *Polish brothers (Mark Polish and Michael Polish, born 1970), American twin screenwr ...

descent. At 2 years old he moved to

Hamilton, New Zealand Hamilton ( mi, Kirikiriroa) is an inland city in the North Island of New Zealand. Located on the banks of the Waikato River, it is the seat and most populous city of the Waikato region. With a territorial population of , it is the country's fou ...

, and returned to Sydney at 9 years old. He played his junior rugby league for the

St Clair Comets St Clair Comets Rugby League Football Club is an Australian rugby league football club based in St Clair, New South Wales formed in 1984. The club now has over 700 registered players and is considered one of the biggest clubs in the Penrith area. ...

. He attended St. Dominic’s College, Penrith. Watene-Zelezniak is the great-grandson of former

New Zealand rugby league The New Zealand Rugby League (NZRL) is the governing body for the sport of rugby league football in New Zealand. SPARC, 2009: 13 The NZRL was founded on 25 April 1910 in preparation for a tour of Great Britain that same year.Coffey and Wood ''T ...

captain and politician, Steve Watene. Watene-Zelezniak is a member of

the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, informally known as the LDS Church or Mormon Church, is a Nontrinitarianism, nontrinitarian Christianity, Christian church that considers itself to be the Restorationism, restoration of the ...

. Malakai is the older brother of the

New Zealand Warriors The New Zealand Warriors are a professional rugby league football club based in Auckland, New Zealand that competes in the National Rugby League (NRL) premiership and is the League's only team from outside Australia. They were formed in 1995 as ...

winger

Dallin Watene-Zelezniak Dallin Watene-Zelezniak (born 17 August 1995) is a New Zealand professional rugby league footballer who plays as a er or for the New Zealand Warriors in the NRL and New Zealand at international level. He previously played for the Penrith Pant ...

Playing career

Early career

Watene-Zelezniak played for the

in the

NYC New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the most densely populated major city in the Uni ...

from 2009 to 2011. In 2014, he joined the

of the

. He played in four of their matches. Watene-Zelezniak returned to the Panthers during the 2015 season to play in their

New South Wales Cup The NSW Cup, currently known as the Knock-On Effect NSW Cup for sponsorship reasons, is a rugby league competition for clubs in New South Wales. The competition has a history dating back to the NSWRFL's origins in 1908, starting off as a reserve ...

team. On 25 September 2015, Watene-Zelezniak was named in

's preliminary train-on squad ahead of their 2017 World Cup qualifying match against the

Cook Islands ) , image_map = Cook Islands on the globe (small islands magnified) (Polynesia centered).svg , capital = Avarua , coordinates = , largest_city = Avarua , official_languages = , lan ...

. He was selected to represent the New Zealand Māori in their match against the

New Zealand Residents The New Zealand Residents (also previously known as New Zealand 'A', New Zealand XIII, the Lion Red Cup XIII and currently known as the Bartercard Premiership Selection) are a New Zealand rugby league football representative side that is selected f ...

on 15 October 2016.

2017

In February, Watene-Zelezniak was a member of the Panthers'

Auckland Nines The NRL Nines is a rugby league nines competition, normally held during the NRL preseason each year. It was initially held in Auckland, New Zealand, between 2014 and 2017 before going on hiatus. Returning in 2020, hosting duties moved to Perth ...

squad. He made his NRL debut for the Panthers against the

South Sydney Rabbitohs The South Sydney Rabbitohs are a professional Australian rugby league Rugby league football, commonly known as just rugby league and sometimes football, footy, rugby or league, is a full-contact sport played by two teams of thirteen pla ...

on 7 April. His selection came after

Matt Moylan Matthew Moylan (born 16 June 1991) is an Australian professional rugby league footballer who plays as a and for the Cronulla-Sutherland Sharks in the NRL and Australia at international level. He previously played for the Penrith Panthers in ...

Waqa Blake Waqa Blake (born 26 October 1994) is a Fijian professional rugby league footballer who plays as a and for the Parramatta Eels in the NRL and Fiji at international level. He previously played for the Penrith Panthers in the National Rugby Lea ...

and

Peta Hiku Peta Hiku (born 4 December 1992) is a New Zealand professional rugby league footballer who plays as a er and for the North Queensland Cowboys in the NRL, and New Zealand and the New Zealand Māori at international level. He previously played ...

were dropped for disciplinary reasons. He played on the wing outside his younger brother Dallin, who said. "I had a feeling at the start of the week he was going to make his debut because they asked me to play left centre. Mal was training well, so I went over to him and said, 'I think you’re playing this week'." On 29 April, it was announced that Watene-Zelezniak had been released from the Panthers to immediately join the

until the end of 2018. He made his club debut for the Tigers on 12 May, also against the Rabbitohs. Coach

Ivan Cleary Ivan Cleary (born 1 March 1971) is an Australian professional rugby league coach who is the head coach of the Penrith Panthers in the NRL and a former professional rugby league footballer who played as a and in the 1990s and 2000s. He is a ...

, who was head coach when Watene-Zelezniak played in the lower grades at the Panthers and brought him to Wests Tigers, said "When we signed him, I never thought he'd play so much. He's really improved. He's improved on some fundamental stuff and each game he's improved."

2018

Watene-Zelezniak made 12 appearances for Wests Tigers and scored 3 tries as the club missed out on the finals by finishing 9th on the table. He then departed the club at the end of the season to re-join Penrith on a two-year deal.

2019

Watene-Zelezniak only made four appearances for Penrith in the

2019 NRL season The 2019 NRL season was the 112th season of professional rugby league in Australia and the 22nd season run by the National Rugby League. The Sydney Roosters became the first team to win back-to-back Premierships since the Brisbane Broncos in 1992 ...

as the club finished a disappointing 10th on the table and missed out on the finals.

2020

Watene-Zelezniak played only one game for Penrith in the

2020 NRL season The 2020 NRL season was the 113th season of professional rugby league in Australia and the 23rd season run by the National Rugby League. Teams The lineup of teams remained unchanged for the 14th consecutive year. ; Notes : : : Pre-season ...

. In October, he was released by the club. On 21 January 2021, Watene-Zelezniak announced his immediate retirement from rugby league due to

acute kidney failure Acute kidney injury (AKI), previously called acute renal failure (ARF), is a sudden decrease in kidney function that develops within 7 days, as shown by an increase in serum creatinine or a decrease in urine output, or both. Causes of AKI are cla ...

and associated complications.

2023

On 23 Oct 2023 it was reported that he had made his debut for 40-8 win over

North Macedonia North Macedonia, ; sq, Maqedonia e Veriut, (Macedonia before February 2019), officially the Republic of North Macedonia,, is a country in Southeast Europe. It gained independence in 1991 as one of the successor states of Socialist Feder ...

in Sydney

Personal life

Malakai Watene-Zelezniak with his brother started a watch Company W Zelezniak.https://www.foxsports.com.au/api/v1/article/amp/nrl/nrl-premiership/the-usinspired-business-venture-setting-up-nrls-watenezelezniak-brothers-for-life-after-footy/news-story/82fbfe0514223154853f57e5b0a5514e

References

External links

NRL profilePenrith Panthers profile
{{DEFAULTSORT:Watene-Zelezniak, Malakai 1991 births Living people Rugby league players from Hamilton, New Zealand Australian company founders Australian people of Māori descent Australian people of Polish descent Australian sportspeople of Tongan descent Australian rugby league players Australian rugby union players Penrith Panthers players Poland national rugby league team players New Zealand Māori rugby league players Rugby league wingers Rugby league centres Rugby league players from Sydney Wests Tigers NSW Cup players Wests Tigers players