29/07/2026
Imagine winning international gold with teammates you'd only just met at the airport. That's exactly what Tonga Tala did...
Five days before a major tournament in 2022, some of Tonga's netball players didn't even know each other's names. They went on to win gold.
In 2014, Tonga had no national netball team, coach, squad, or training facilities.
Determined to change that, former television news anchor Salote Sisifa became CEO of Tonga Netball and promised the board that within five years she would build a team capable of competing internationally and reaching the world’s top 10 by 2025.
If she failed, she would resign.
She sought help from coaches abroad. Only one replied: Jaqua Pori-Makea-Simpson, who became head coach in 2019.
“We have no dollar sign to our name. If that's what you're looking for, Team Tonga is not the place. But if you help Tonga, we will not sell you short of your value.”
They began recruiting players from Tonga's diaspora in Australia and New Zealand. Among them was goal shooter Uneeq Palavi, who was born in Australia to a Samoan mother and Tongan father.
Palavi says connecting with her Tongan heritage has been a special experience: “Playing for Tonga is always like playing with 15 of my other sisters. Playing with girls of your ethnicity, your culture, your country, that's above and beyond.”
However, that progress was tested in 2022 when a volcanic eruption, tsunami and Covid-19 outbreak devastated Tonga.
Pori-Makea-Simpson was tasked with assembling a squad during lockdown, with little access to her players. She scoured social media for Tongan netballers across Australia and New Zealand, bringing together a makeshift team for the 2022 PacificAus Sports Netball Series. Some players met for the first time at Sydney airport just days before the tournament.
Against all odds, Tonga won 🥇 gold.
Pori-Makea-Simpson says their performance was incredible:
“The connectedness and the feeling that they got from each other was so unique and ingrained in them that it was bigger and stronger than anything I could have taught them from all my coaching books.”
Tonga eventually climbed from 42nd to 7th in the world rankings and qualify for their first Netball World Cup since 1999.
Now, Tonga Tala is making their Commonwealth Games debut.
Not bad for a team that didn't exist just 12 years earlier.
🎧 More on their story: https://bbc.in/4vViUtX
