Sam Kasiano, a former front-rower for the Canterbury Bulldogs and Melbourne Storm, has signed a new deal that will allow him to continue his rugby league playing career.
Last featuring in the NRL in 2018, Kasiano has decided to move from Sydney to Queensland to join the Souths Sharks who compete in the A-Grade Men's division in the Rugby League Mackay and District competition.
Now set to play alongside former NRL players Ben Barba, Kenny Edwards and Manu Ma'u, the move comes after he spent last season with the Dapto Canaries in the Illawarra Cup competition.
โIt initially was going to happen, but he had to pull out originally because of work commitments,โ Souths A-Grade coach Mark Bowden told The Courier-Mail.
โHe has since reached out again and said he'd like to play for us, circumstances have changed a bit so he won't be living in town but will be flying in for Thursday trainings and for the games on the weekend.
โIt was something we had sort of forgotten about at this stage, but it fell in our lap again.
โOur stocks are looking good already, but we couldn't knock back the opportunity to have a player like him in our line-up.โ
A dual international for New Zealand (six games between 2012-13) and Samoa (five games between 2015-18), Kasiano appeared in 153 matches in the NRL for the Canterbury Bulldogs and Melbourne Storm across eight seasons.
Named the 2012 Dally M Prop of the Year, he then went to play overseas in the Super League for the Catalans Dragons (2019-22) and Warrington Wolves (2023) after being released by the Storm.
โThat's important for us, there was a deep discussion between me and the president of the club about that,โ Bowden added.
โ(Kasiano) still has a family to support and he does work in construction down south, so it was a bit of a negotiation to see how much we could still get him around the club.โ
