Malakai Watene-Zelezniak

Malakai Watene-Zelezniak (born 27 August 1991) is a rugby league footballer who plays on the wing for the Penrith Panthers in the NRL. He previously played for the Wests Tigers.

Malakai Watene-Zelezniak
Personal information
Born (1991-08-28) 28 August 1991
Sydney, New South Wales, Australia
Height186 cm (6 ft 1 in)
Weight94 kg (14 st 11 lb)
Playing information
Rugby league
PositionWing, Centre
Club
Years Team Pld T G FG P
2017 Penrith Panthers 1 0 0 0 0
2017–18 Wests Tigers 25 9 0 0 36
2019– Penrith Panthers 4 0 0 0 0
Total 30 9 0 0 36
Representative
Years Team Pld T G FG P
2019– Tonga 9s 3 1 0 0 4
Rugby union
PositionWing, Centre
Club
Years Team Pld T G FG P
2014 NSW Country Eagles 4 0 0 0 0
As of 20 October 2019
Source: [1]

Watene-Zelezniak briefly played rugby union for the New South Wales Country Eagles in the National Rugby Championship.

Background

Watene-Zelezniak was born in Sydney, New South Wales, Australia, and is of Māori, Tongan and Polish descent. At 2 years old he moved Hamilton, New Zealand, and returned to Sydney at 9 years old.

He played his junior rugby league for the St Clair Comets. He attended St. Dominic’s College, Penrith.

Watene-Zelezniak is the great-grandson of former New Zealand rugby league captain and politician, Steve Watene.[2] Watene-Zelezniak is a member of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.[2] Malakai is the older brother of Canterbury Bankstown Bulldogs Fullback Dallin Watene-Zelezniak.

Playing career

Early career

Watene-Zelezniak played for the Penrith Panthers in the NYC from 2009 to 2011.[3] In 2014, he joined the New South Wales Country Eagles of the National Rugby Championship.[4] He played in four of their matches.[5][6][7][8] Watene-Zelezniak returned to the Panthers during the 2015 season to play in their New South Wales Cup team.[9][10] On 25 September 2015, Watene-Zelezniak was named in Tonga's preliminary train-on squad ahead of their 2017 World Cup qualifying match against the Cook Islands.[11] He was selected to represent the New Zealand Māori in their match against the New Zealand Residents on 15 October 2016.[12]

2017

In February, Watene-Zelezniak was a member of the Panthers' Auckland Nines squad.[13] He made his NRL debut for the Panthers against the South Sydney Rabbitohs on 7 April. His selection came after Matt Moylan, Waqa Blake and Peta Hiku were dropped for disciplinary reasons.[14] He played on the wing outside his younger brother Dallin, who said. "I had a feeling at the start of the week he was going to make his debut because they asked me to play left centre. Mal was training well, so I went over to him and said, 'I think you’re playing this week'."[15]

On 29 April, it was announced that Watene-Zelezniak had been released from the Panthers to immediately join the Wests Tigers until the end of 2018.[16] He made his club debut for the Tigers on 12 May, also against the Rabbitohs.[17] Coach Ivan Cleary, who was head coach when Watene-Zelezniak played in the lower grades at the Panthers and brought him to Wests Tigers, said "When we signed him, I never thought he'd play so much. He's really improved. He's improved on some fundamental stuff and each game he's improved."[18]

2018

Watene-Zelezniak made 12 appearances for Wests Tigers and scored 3 tries as the club missed out on the finals by finishing 9th on the table. He then departed the club at the end of the season to re-join Penrith on a two-year deal.[19][20]

2019

Watene-Zelezniak only made four appearances for Penrith in the 2019 NRL season as the club finished a disappointing 10th on the table and missed out on the finals.[21]

References
  1. "Malakai Watene-Zelezniak – Career Stats & Summary". Rugby League Project.
  2. Lane, Daniel (4 April 2014). "Penrith rookie Dallin Watene-Zelezniak shapes up to a family legend". Sydney Morning Herald.
  3. NYC Database. Retrieved 7 April 2017.
  4. "NSW Country Eagles announce NRC Squad for 2014". The Roar. 1 August 2014. Retrieved 7 April 2017.
  5. Eagles 31 – 2 Rams. Fox Sports. Retrieved 7 April 2017.
  6. Rays 21 – 33 Eagles. Fox Sports. Retrieved 7 April 2017.
  7. Eagles 16 – 37 Rising. Fox Sports. Retrieved 7 April 2017.
  8. Eagles 40 – 34 Spirit. Fox Sports. Retrieved 7 April 2017.
  10. "Dallin finds his feet in new role". Western Weekender. 29 June 2015. Retrieved 7 April 2017.
  11. "Tonga named preliminary train-on squad". NRL.com. 25 September 2015. Retrieved 7 April 2017.
  12. "Panthers picked for NZ Maori". penrithpanthers.com.au. 29 September 2016. Retrieved 7 April 2017.
  13. "Panthers picked for Nines". penrithpanthers.com.au. 30 January 2017. Retrieved 7 April 2017.
  14. Newton, Alicia (5 April 2017). "Dream reunion for Watene-Zelezniak brothers". NRL.com. Retrieved 6 April 2017.
  15. Christian Nicolussi. "Dallin and Malakai Watene-Zelezniak to renew rivalry as Panthers tackle Tigers". Daily Telegraph.
  16. "Wests Tigers sign Malakai Watene-Zelezniak". weststigers.com.au. 29 April 2017. Retrieved 30 April 2017.
  17. "Updated team lists: Wests Tigers v Rabbitohs". NRL.com. 12 May 2017. Retrieved 13 May 2017.
  18. Michael Chammas. "Watene-Zelezniak brothers ready for NRL battle as Penrith Panthers face Tigers". Canberra Times.
  19. "Wests Tigers 2018 season review". www.nrl.com.
  20. "Malakai Watene-Zelezniak to reunite with brother Dallin at Panthers". www.foxsports.com.au.
  21. "Panthers: 2019 season by the numbers". www.nrl.com.
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