The Big O

The Life and Times of Olsen Filipaina

Pacific Revolution Pioneer

By Patrick Skene

To fans he was ‘the Galloping Garbo’, a shy working-class hero who thrilled crowds in between shifts as a garbage man. To opponents who dreaded facing his Polynesian power, he was a disrupter known as ‘The Big O’. To coaches and media critics, he was simply ‘Olsen the enigma’.

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Worldwide release May 28th 2020

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“Olsen was a pathfinder, the first to show what Polynesians could do, and he was the face of hope for his community. He was a great player who was misunderstood, and this is a very important book to explain his role in the Polynesian rise in rugby league.”

 

Sir Graham Lowe

In 1980, a shy Maori-Samoan joined the Sydney competition playing for the Balmain Tigers, Eastern Suburbs Roosters and the North Sydney Bears. Whilst playing in Sydney he represented his beloved Kiwis and tormented the Kangaroos, introducing a Polynesian culture and power game that would revolutionise the sport.

The Big O is the story of Olsen Filipaina, a New Zealand Hall of Fame rugby league legend who was a reluctant pioneer for the Pacific Revolution – the influx of Māori and Pasifika players who today dominate the NRL.

It tracks Olsen’s story from his rise out of working-class South Auckland to overcoming depression, racism and cultural dislocation in Sydney, to the Cinderella story of his success for the New Zealand Kiwis.

Forty years after Filipaina burst into the Australian rugby league scene, Skene relates the tale of a humble and principled man who overcame barriers to dethrone the greatest player of all.

Reviews

  • ‘‘I found this to be arguably the most significant sports biography that I have read — and I reviewed scores of them during my 44-year newspaper career. Olsen’s unique story is one that needed to be told and Patrick Skene has done that splendidly.’’

    John Coffey, Author, Journalist and New Zealand’s pre-eminent rugby league Historian

  • “I have a large collection of sporting biographies, but I haven’t read one quite like ‘The Big O’. In one sense, to categorise it as a sporting biography doesn’t do justice to it, because it is much more than that. Rarely in my experience is an author able to weave the story of one sporting figure into the broader context of such an important development in the history of rugby league. Congratulations on such a great piece of work – a great addition to the library of rugby league literature. It deserves to be widely read and positively reviewed.”

    David Trodden, Chief Executive Officer, NSWRL

  • ‘No-one who ever saw Olsen Filipaina play rugby league will ever forget him. He crashed down on rugby league in the 1970s as if he was an astronaut from a superior civilisation. Nobody knew how to deal with him; even fewer could stop him. But off the field, Olsen faced a harsh, racist world almost alone, but survived to leave a legacy that has been inherited by generations of Polynesian rugby league stars. Now, in ’The Big O’, Patrick Skene tells the full story of one of the great rugby league players, a pioneer who laid the path that many others followed, and a man whose life symbolises the struggles and achievements of the Polynesian communities in Australia and New Zealand. ’The Big O' is a fascinating book and essential reading for all rugby league fans and anyone interested in Polynesian history.’

    Tony Collins, Author, Historian, Emeritus Professor of History at De Montfort University

  • ‘The Big O’ is a study of great thoroughness and spans important territory with the profiles of the New Zealand and Australian Rugby League nations and their ways. It tells in compelling depth and detail the story of a truly unique footballer in Olsen, a man who emerges from the telling as someone very special in the larger Rugby League story …and an intriguing and unusual and admirable human being. It’s a great read - a fascinating study from its beginnings in NZ and one which should be of great value and interest to anyone who cares at all about the game.’

    Ian Heads, Rugby League Historian and Author of 40 books

  • “Rugby league biographies come in all shapes and sizes but, like its subject, surely none has ever had the unique form of Patrick Skene’s new biography of Olsen Filipaina ‘The Big O’. Although Skene follows the usual chronological format, this book is as much a unique social and cultural history as it is the story of a man who was a tremendous player. Travelling a new road is never easy but this book, lovingly crafted, shows why Olsen Filipaina is still a name that resonates with all rugby league fans. Patrick Skene has done a wonderful job in telling a marvelous story that needed to be told in both Australia and New Zealand, but also for all those who care for the game, its heritage and its future.”

    Terry Williams, NSWRL Historian

About the Author

Patrick Skene was born and raised in Sydney and writes stories on the intersection of sport, history and culture. His work has appeared in Guardian Australia, The Age, Inside Sport, Boxing.com and Footy Almanac.

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