Israel Folau is one of Australia's greatest cross-code footballers, excelling in both rugby league and union. His contributions to both are beyond reproach. However, his sacking from the Wallabies after expressing his religious beliefs sparked a debate that continues to polarise Australian sport to this day. In the much-anticipated ABC TV documentary Folau, fresh insights and perspectives are uncovered to the story.
Israel Folau's story should have been one of the greatest in Australian sport.
For a long time, it was.
Folau was the Pasifika kid from the south-west Sydney suburb of Minto who done good.
Sustained and supported by the twin pillars of family and faith, Folau used the talent he believed was bestowed upon him by God to dominate two codes of football — and be popular enough to help launch an expansion team in a third.
And then the story turned sour.
In the new two-part documentary Folau airing on ABC TV from May 18, Israel Folau's story is examined in all its multi-layered complexity, one at the intersection of faith, family and finance.
Footy
Reds and Fiji-born Wallabies star Samu Kerevi kicks off the episode and describes rugby as "close to religion" in the Polynesian community.
Former Wallaby and current Tonga coach Toutai Kefu says "rugby for us, as Islanders, really suits us — look at our body types, we're big, we're explosive, it's something that we do really well".
Israel Folau did it better than most.
His impact on football in Australia is impossible to overstate — anyone who saw him play live will never forget it.
Physically, Folau had it all — at more than 100 kilograms and 194 centimetres, he was simply too big, too strong and too fast.
In rugby league, he had a choice: either out-pace his opponents, barrel straight through them or spectacularly soar above them.
He made his NRL debut as a 17-year-old with the Melbourne Storm and broke the record for tries scored in a rookie year.
By 18 he was in the Kangaroos squad, the youngest debutant in 96 years.
At the time, Storm teammate Matt King said Folau could be "one of the best we've seen", while others thought of him as the next Mal Meninga.
In all, Folau scored 73 tries in 91 NRL appearances for the Storm and Brisbane Broncos, and played eight times for the Kangaroos.
His five games for the Queensland State of Origin team produced five tries, including one of the all-time most spectacular grabs.
Folau's impact in football circles was such that he was chosen as the face of a new Australian Rules Football franchise — the Greater Western Sydney Giants — without ever having played the code.
That brave but ultimately ill-fated switch was a blip, but only a short one.
After two years, Folau moved to a third sport — rugby union.
He was back in his element.
In a Waratah and Wallaby jersey he was virtually unstoppable, scoring 60 Super Rugby tries which remains the record.
He scored twice on his Wallabies debut against the British and Irish Lions at Lang Park — going on to score 37 five-pointers in his 73 Tests.
Writer and director Taofia Pelesasa comments in the documentary Folau about how he was inspired by Folau, following him and his burgeoning career on social media.
"He fulfilled the ideal migrant dream … he was the face of that [dream] for a long time," Pelesasa says.
"I was inspired by him, his trajectory and his journey.
"He fits the ideals of a Pacific male … so his fall was so much greater."
Family
"There are three pillars to the Polynesian life — family, faith and finances. They're all connected," Folau wrote in AthletesVoice in 2017.
That's not uncommon for Pasifika families.
"Pacific Islander culture is built on our family, number one, and our faith," Toutai Kefu says.
Church was not always at the forefront of Folau's mind, though.
"I went to church on Sundays because that's what my parents expected," he wrote in the AthletesVoice.
"I didn't want to disappoint them."
At the apex of the Folau family dynamic is 'Eni Folau.
'Eni was born in Tonga, and aged 23 he left for Australia where he met his wife, Amelia, in Sydney.
Israel is one of their six children.
Former Wallaby Nick Farr-Jones says there was "no doubt ['Eni] is a fire-and-brimstone preacher".
Brother Salesi Tupou, a former bishop in the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, describes the Folaus as "very good people".
He says 'Eni was "never easy on his children".
"He do what he believed and what the best his children need, more than what they want."
Folau's relationship with his father had its ups and downs — the latter surrounding Folau's shift to the AFL.
Giants chief executive David Matthews noted in the documentary that the Folau family made the decisions on taking up the AFL's offer together.
"My dad was keen," Folau wrote, writing in the same article that he felt intimidated by his father, who was "strict in the way most Polynesian dads are".
Professionally, it was a disastrous move.
"With one signature, I went from the top of the NRL to the bottom of the AFL," Folau wrote.
"I was doing what I thought was best for my family … to live a new life to appease other people."
Folau said telling his father that he was quitting the AFL was "difficult, scary and contrary to everything [he'd] done in [his] life up to that point".
But he added that the disagreement with his father healed their relationship overall.
"My dad and I have a 10-times-better relationship than we used to ... we talk with each other honestly," Folau said.
"In the past, I would have had to run everything past him. He now says, 'Sweet, that's your decision and you go with it'."
Finances
The decisions of many professional athletes are heavily influenced by money. Their careers are short. "They need to make hay while the sun shines," says journalist Georgina Robinson.
"As Pacific people growing up, generally in the margins of society, being able to succeed in sport provides opportunities to break through," says Joiji Ravulo, a professor of social work and policy studies at the University of Sydney.
"To show that you are able to contribute, that you are worth something."
Switching codes to play for the Greater Western Sydney Giants was an enormous, high-stakes gamble — by far the biggest of Folau's career.
He had, after all, never even played AFL, only watching it when he lived in Melbourne.
One of the key factors was the money on offer.
At the Brisbane Broncos, Folau was on $400,000 a year — less than half what the AFL was willing to stump up.
"The AFL offer was too good to turn down," Folau wrote.
"[My father] says, 'You can improve the lives of everyone'."
But after two years and just 13 AFL games, Folau had enough.
The financial implications of him deciding to renege on his AFL contract would be considerable.
Toutai Kefu explains that in Pasifika families, it is common for money earned by the children to be pooled in the family, although there is no suggestion that this was the case in the Folau family.
"When kids go out into the workforce, their pay cheque goes back to the parents. That's just the way it is," Kefu says.
"The biggest import that comes into Tonga each year is hundreds of millions of dollars. It's remittance. It's people sending their pay cheque back to their parents or to their families."
Folau said though that the money he was getting from the AFL meant "nothing" and that he'd "had enough".
He simply "wasn't very good at this new sport" and that it left him "emotionally broken".
After leaving the Giants, he said the pressure had been released.
"It was the first time in my life I felt free."
With that freedom, he joined Rugby Australia as one of the biggest signings in the sport.
That phase of Folau's life ended in acrimony though, when he posted an image to social media saying "those that are living in sin will end up in hell unless you repent".
Those comments were accompanied by an image that proclaimed hell awaited "drunks, homosexuals, adulterers, liars, fornicators, thieves, atheists and idolaters", alongside a bible verse.
This was at the time when the marriage equality debate was in full flow and Folau's tweet was his contribution to that debate.
It was not the first time that Folau's social media use had created issues.
The year prior, Folau responded to a question from a member of the public about God's plan for gay people by saying: "HELL … unless they repent of their sins and turn to God."
Rugby Australia cancelled his $4 million contract, alleging a high-level breach of its players' code of conduct, but in the process was criticised by some who felt silencing Folau could have far-reaching impacts related to freedom of speech and the rights to express one's religious beliefs.
Folau — backed by his wife, netball international Maria — fought the sacking at the Fair Work Commission, claiming wrongful dismissal.
As Folau's case exploded into the public consciousness, an opportunity to raise more awareness presented itself — a GoFundMe page to help gauge levels of support among the public.
It raised $765,000 towards his legal battle with Rugby Australia in just four days.
The controversial campaign was pulled after just a handful of days but left former teammate Stephen Hoiles incredulous.
"He made a million bucks a year … for probably the last 10 or 12 years.
"He doesn't need anyone's money. Why is he doing this?"
Folau said simply that Rugby Australia was devoting "significant resources to fight me in court" and that he needed the support for what he said would be "a long and hard battle".
With GoFundMe down, the Australian Christian Lobby and its boss Martyn Iles stepped in and raised more than $2 million before suspending its campaign.
"We're [supporting Folau] because we believe it's the right thing to do," Iles said at the time.
"There's a principle in this case that's relevant to all Australians.
"What it's cost him is unreasonable … he has posted scripture, which is part of the mainstream beliefs of millions of Australians, and the politically correct baseball bat has been wielded against him."
Faith
"God was the architect of everything in Israel Folau's life," Georgina Robinson, the Sydney Morning Herald's chief rugby reporter, says in an interview for Folau the documentary.
"For anyone with faith that deep, God is intrinsic in everything."
Folau was brought up a Mormon but described his attendance at church as "box ticking".
He remained, though, an ardent believer.
After leaving the Mormon church in 2009 when he signed with the Brisbane Broncos, Folau wrote in an AthletesVoice article that he struggled to fill "the huge void" that leaving the church created.
"Church is very important, probably the most important, as part of our cultural identity," artist Telly Tuita says by way of explanation.
Without it, Folau filled his life with other things. As he put it in his AthletesVoice piece: alcohol, women, sins.
He said the absence of God as a guiding light in his life led to him spiralling out of control.
"My faith in Christ is what keeps me stable," Folau later said in an interview with Daily Telegraph reporter Jamie Pandaram.
"All the things that's happening here, it's all temporary.
"My faith in Christ is my cornerstone."
Folau firmly believed that his undeniable talent was God-given.
"It's commonly believed that when you're given a gift or talent from God, that you are going to use that talent for God," Joiji Ravulo says.
"You are going to pursue the use of that gift or talent to glorify God."
And just as the Lord gave him his talent, Folau believed He could take it away just as easily.
Folau had not experienced many setbacks on the field, but it's telling and entirely unsurprising that he attributed those he did to being God's will.
"He told me that he felt that when he went off the rails at the Brisbane Broncos, God deliberately broke his ankle to teach him a lesson about what he was doing and the path he was following was wrong," Pandaram recalls.
The next setback was his move to the Giants.
"It was around this time I started attending a new church where I experienced God's love for the first time in my life," Folau says of the experience in his AthletesVoice article.
"That's when I started to realise this was all part of God's plan for me.
"He had to break me down in order to build me up again into the person he wanted me to be."
In a separate interview with Pandaram, Folau added "there's always going to be some type of challenge … that's just life".
"If things go pear-shaped, it's OK because I believe in a higher purpose and a plan."
Fallout
Folau's statements on homosexuality were met with surprise and disappointment but, perhaps surprisingly, there was understanding from some in the community.
"I was quite taken aback by it, because … it was condemning me, first and foremost, as a queer man," Taofia Pelesasa, who also used to play rugby, says.
"But as a Pacific man, I could weirdly see where it had come from. Not directly from him, but sort of, if you retrace, he is speaking to a faith that he has taken on.
"I just wanted to turn it back and be like, where did we get that church from?"
Kefu says the polarisation of the topic directly challenges Christianity.
"When people say, 'Israel, you can't say that', then I would say a lot of Polynesians would say, 'You're questioning our faith'.
"I don't agree with what he said, but I agree with him being able to say that and not losing a job over it."
During the fallout from the comments, Folau wrote that suggestions he was homophobic "could not be further from the truth".
"I believe in inclusion. In my heart, I know I do not have any phobia towards anyone."
After Folau was sacked, then-Rugby Australia boss Raelene Castle was at pains to say the issue was "not a religious discussion".
"This is a discussion around the employee-employer relationship and the values and the contractual arrangements within that agreement," she said.
Folau's team, though, angled the debate towards the politicised storm around religious freedom that was being fought in Australian society as a whole.
Former Wallaby Dan Palmer realised he was gay when he was a teenager, but came out only after his career ended.
"To me, as a kid, it was very difficult to reconcile those two seemingly competing ideas — on one hand I was gay, and on the other hand I wanted to be a rugby player," he says in an interview for the documentary.
"I found [that] quite difficult my whole career.
"When you're deeply closeted, especially in a sporting environment, what you're really looking for, or hoping for, is acceptance and the ability to pursue your dreams regardless of who you happen to be or who you happen to love.
"Personally I had this, what felt like a noose around my neck."
Palmer says the religious freedom angle in the Folau controversy was a red herring.
"Israel was free and is free to say whatever he likes," he says.
"He didn't lose any fundamental rights for doing so — he lost his job, as any of us would if we break contractual obligations."
Of course, whether Folau had broken his contractual obligations was the crux of the issue.
Was there a clause in his contract that forbade Folau from quoting scripture?
Apparently not, according to Pandaram.
"In what will go down as their great administrative blunder, Rugby Australia did not include any social media clauses in that contract [offered to and signed by Folau in 2018]," Pandaram says.
When Rugby Australia realised its blunder, an updated contract was sent to Folau.
But "the deal has already been done" re-counts Pandaram. The contract was left unsigned.
Folau's increasingly strident views also continued to cause controversy.
One such instance came after Folau, in a sermon, linked bushfire disasters to the need for Australians to "repent" for their sins.
His lawyer, George Haros, had opted for both a legal and PR approach in acting for Folau.
"The bushfires comments was at a time where we were looking good and they weren't taken favourably by the public," Haros says.
"The team was a bit flat at that point."
Haros, however, says barrister Stuart Wood said the right of Folau to put that view forward was what the entire case was about.
"It was a bit like a three-quarter-time huddle … pulling us all in and saying that, you know, that's exactly what we're fighting for, the right of somebody to be able to put their view forward," Haros says.
"It was a really memorable moment in the case where we all picked ourselves up and got on with the job at hand and realised that he was right."
Folau and Rugby Australia ultimately apologised to each other as part of a settlement, in which Folau was rumoured to have been paid a significant sum by Rugby Australia.
"It took a lot of energy from a lot of people," former Wallabies head coach Michael Cheika says.
"In the end, when everyone stepped back from it, we all still stood for what we stood for before.
"[It] was just a heap of energy that got put into something and then got burnt.
"No-one really got a positive outcome out of anything."
The polarisation of the topic, though, led to further issues.
Folau's supporters among the playing group, of which there were a significant number, felt let down.
"We got told not to say anything about supporting Izzy," Samu Kerevi says.
"But after those coming days, it was everyone that didn't support him that was all over the news.
"They were allowed to be interviewed, they were allowed to say that they don't support the message.
"That's what kind of annoyed us and made us angry."
Folau and Rugby Australia settled their legal dispute in 2019.
It was not the end of the story.
Future?
Last year, seven Manly Sea Eagles players refused to wear a jersey that featured a rainbow motif in support of the LGBTQIA+ community.
Manly admits the entire situation was poorly handled but the players affected have doubled down, saying they will not wear a pride jersey in the future.
In October, AFL club Essendon's appointment of Andrew Thorburn as chief executive lasted just 24 hours after his links to a church condemning homosexuality and abortion were revealed.
Thorburn said he did not share all the views aired in sermons at the church, but added the discourse showed that "Christian faith is not tolerated or permitted in the public square".
"[The public] made it clear that my Christian faith and my association with a church are unacceptable in our culture if you wish to hold a leadership position in society," he said.
It's a topic that is not going away.
And, at the end of it all, what has been learned from the Folau saga?
"The lessons from history tell us that we can inflict terrible damage on each other if we think there is right and wrong, if we think there are two sides," ABC journalist Tracey Holmes says.
"If we think there are just two sides, you turn the world into a place that is just at war with itself. And nobody wins in war."
"We can each build the other side up as demons," entertainer Magda Szubanski says.
"I think we need to lay down those arguments and that attitude and cultivate [discussion] that is less inflammatory, that's less antagonistic, and that might bring forth new ideas."
Credits
- Reporting: Simon Smale
- Producer: Rachel Hamilton
- Digital production: Daniel Franklin
