Masada Iosefa (26 January 1988 – 25 January 2021) was a Samoan professional

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 as a in the 2000s and 2010s 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 ...

and

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 ...

Early life

Born in

Motoʻotua Motootua is a settlement in Samoa. It is home to the Tupua Tamasese Meaʻole Hospital. References

Populated places in Samoa {{Samoa-geo-stub ...

Apia Apia () is the Capital (political), capital and largest city of Samoa, as well as the nation's only city. It is located on the central north coast of Upolu, Samoa's second-largest island. Apia falls within the political district (''itūmālō ...

, Samoa, Iosefa emigrated to Australia at a young age. A

Blacktown City RLFC Blacktown City Bears ''(formerly known as Blacktown City)'' are an Australian rugby league football club based in Blacktown, New South Wales. Notable players Blacktown City / Blacktown City Bears See also *List of rugby league clubs in Aus ...

junior and a student of

Patrician Brothers' College, Blacktown Patrician Brothers' College, Blacktown is a Roman Catholic single-sex secondary day school for boys, located in Blacktown, a western suburb of Sydney, New South Wales, Australia. History The College was founded in 1952 by the Patrician Broth ...

, Iosefa has said of his younger years, "I was a little gangster. I guess it doesn't matter now but I grew up with a lot of guys and all they knew was crime. I just blended in with them and got caught up with it a bit. I was just hanging out on the streets. Doing the wrong thing. It is a pretty rough place and the kids just hang out and get into trouble. Not massive trouble but it can go that way. I was caught up with it. I was really close to getting locked away for a while." Iosefa was a cousin of the four Mata'utia brothers;

Chanel Mata'utia Chanel Mata'utia-Leifi (pronounced ma-ta-oo-tee-a) (born 17 August 1992) is an Australian former professional rugby league footballer. He plays for the Cessnock Goannas in the Newcastle Rugby League. His positions are and . He previously playe ...

Sione Mata'utia Sione Mata'utia-Leifi (pronounced ma-ta-oo-tee-a) (born 25 June 1996) is a professional rugby league footballer who plays as a and forward for St Helens in the Betfred Super League. He has represented both Australia and Samoa at internationa ...

Pat Mata'utia Pat Mata'utia-Leifi (pronounced ma-ta-oo-tee-a) (born 11 September 1993) is a Samoa international rugby league footballer. His positions are and . He previously played for the Newcastle Knights in the National Rugby League. Background Mata'ut ...

and Peter Mata'utia.

Playing career

In 2008, Iosefa made his

debut for the

. He played with the Panthers in the following three years making 43 appearances, almost all from the bench, and scoring eight tries. In 2012, he joined the

Mount Pritchard Mounties The Mounties Rugby League Football Club (sponsored by Mounties Group) is an Australian rugby league football club based in Mount Pritchard, New South Wales formed in 1927. They currently play in the NSW Cup, Ron Massey Cup and Sydney Shield. Mo ...

in the

NSW 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 ...

, a feeder team for the

Canberra Raiders The Canberra Raiders are an Australian professional rugby league football club based in the national capital city of Canberra, Australian Capital Territory. They have competed in Australasia's elite rugby league competition, the National Rugby ...

. Iosefa was picked up as a mid-season recruit by the

, as back-up for hooker

Robbie Farah Robert Peter Farah ( ar, روبي فرح) (born 23 January 1984) is a former professional rugby league footballer who played in the 2000s and 2010s. An Australian international, Lebanese international and captain of New South Wales Blues te ...

. Playing hooker or from the bench, he made nine appearances for 2012, the last seven of which were losses. He was also a member of the feeder team Balmain Ryde Eastwood Tigers side that lost the NSW Cup grand final. Early in 2013, it was reported that Iosefa had been offered a contract with 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 ...

, with the Wests Tigers unwilling to release him as they needed a backup for hooker Farah.

Representative career

Iosefa was named in both the Samoan and New Zealand training squads for the 2008 World Cup; however, he did not end up making either final side. In 2009, Iosefa was named as part of the Samoan side for the

Pacific Cup The Pacific Cup was a rugby league football competition for national teams from the Pacific region. History The Pacific Cup was started in 1975 by Keith Gittoes of the New South Wales Rugby League.test match Test match in some sports refers to a sporting contest between national representative teams and may refer to: * Test cricket * Test match (indoor cricket) * Test match (rugby union) * Test match (rugby league) * Test match (association football) ...

against rivals

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 ...

in Penrith. Later in the year, Samoa selected him to play in Samoa's

2013 Rugby League World Cup The 2013 Rugby League World Cup was the fourteenth staging of the Rugby League World Cup and took place in England, Wales, France and Ireland. between 26 October and 30 November 2013. It was the main event of the year's 2013 Festival of World ...

campaign. However, just before the tournament kicked off, he was forced out of the side after suffering an injury.

Post-playing career and death

Following his playing career, Iosefa was employed as a youth worker in

Rockhampton, Queensland Rockhampton is a city in the Rockhampton Region of Central Queensland, Australia. The population of Rockhampton in June 2021 was 79,967, Estimated resident population, 30 June 2018. making it the fourth-largest city in the state outside of the ...

. On 25 January 2021, a day short of his 33rd birthday, Iosefa died after being involved in a

quad bike An all-terrain vehicle (ATV), also known as a light utility vehicle (LUV), a quad bike, or simply a quad, as defined by the American National Standards Institute (ANSI); is a vehicle that travels on low-pressure tires, with a seat that is strad ...

accident in

Herbert Herbert may refer to: People Individuals * Herbert (musician), a pseudonym of Matthew Herbert Name * Herbert (given name) * Herbert (surname) Places Antarctica * Herbert Mountains, Coats Land * Herbert Sound, Graham Land Australia * Herbert ...

, a rural locality of

Darwin, Northern Territory Darwin ( ; Larrakia: ) is the capital city of the Northern Territory, Australia. With an estimated population of 147,255 as of 2019, the city contains the majority of the residents of the sparsely populated Northern Territory. It is the smalle ...

References

External links

Penrith Panthers profile
{{DEFAULTSORT:Iosefa, Masada 1988 births 2021 deaths Balmain Ryde-Eastwood Tigers players Junior Kiwis players Mata'utia family (rugby) Penrith Panthers players Road incident deaths in the Northern Territory Rugby league hookers Samoa national rugby league team players Samoan sportspeople Samoan emigrants to Australia Samoan rugby league players Sportspeople from Apia Wests Tigers NSW Cup players Wests Tigers players Windsor Wolves players