At five years old, Kayal Iro was playing football for the under 10s.
At 14, he wore football boots for the first time.
Now, at 24, he might just be the dark horse for the NRL’s Rookie of the Year Award.
Iro has impressed this season for the Sharks with his toughness, strength and work rate as he has played 20 games for Craig Fitzgibbon’s side, scoring six tries and accumulating nine try assists.
Iro has also cracked 100 metres in every match he has played, and his average run metres per game is second only to Cronulla teammate Jesse Ramien and Dolphins star Herbie Farnworth among centres.
With Lachlan Galvin ineligible due to injury, Iro is locked in a battle with Canberra’s Ethan Strange, Manly’s Lehi Hopoate and Parramatta’s Blaize Talagai for the gong.
Iro has a few years on all of them but he had to grow up fast when it came to footy.
When you are playing for the Arorangi Bears, the pride of Rarotonga in the Cook Islands, there is no other choice.
“Growing up, I was a little fella. I had to play up a grade back home,” Iro said.
“They didn’t always have all the age groups, so I had to play four or five years up sometimes.
“I was playing under 10s when I was five or six.
“I’d get smashed but it was alright. Everyone just wants to smash someone.
“There wasn’t a lot of structure, just hard footy.
“When I grew up playing for Bears, I’d play with cousins, uncles, everybody. I just tried to outwork the bigger guys.”
Iro’s journey from the tiny island nation to the bright lights of the NRL, where he’ll line up for the Sharks in their semifinal clash against Melbourne on Saturday night, is a remarkable one.
Born in England, where his legendary father Kevin was finishing his playing career with St Helens, Iro moved to Arorangi with his family when he was two.
Kayal Iro has not missed a game for the Sharks since being added to the side for round four. (Getty Images: Cameron Spencer )
The NRL is no stranger to players with Pasifika backgrounds or to players who came of age in the islands, and there is a handful of NRL players who trace their ancestry back to the Cook Islands.
But Iro is the only one raised on the Cook Islands, a nation so small its entire population of just over 15,000 could fit into AAMI Park on Saturday night and still leave half the stadium empty.
Iro lived there until he moved to New Zealand at 15 to finish school. He looked after his late grandmother and they watched every NRL game together every week, which first sparked the idea that he could play at the top level himself.
It was around that time that he wore football boots in a game for the first time. Not everyone had them in the islands, so to make it fair everyone played without them.
“Growing up, I remember being barefoot, running around. I pretty much raised myself in that cruisy, island life,” Iro said.
“There’s always kids running around and it feels like everyone’s family. Even if you’re not related, if they’re from your village, they are family.”
Iro returns to the Cook Islands whenever he can. His father still lives there and has won awards for his work in ecology and preservation.
The last trip back was in June, during Cronulla’s bye week. Whenever he does get back the plan — and the reception — is always the same. There are no airs or graces in Arorangi, just family.
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“It’s straight to the beach, get some rays, eat the good food, soak up being back home,” Iro said.
“Spending time with family is most important, but it’s a place where I don’t worry about anything. It’s home.
“Everybody knows each other, so they just welcome me back like always.
“I know they’re happy for me and proud of me and they support me, but there’s not a big parade when I come back. It’s just coming home.”
Just making it from Arorangi to an NRL system was defying the odds, but Iro then had to bide his time before cracking the top level.
He came through the juniors at the Warriors before a stint with Newcastle was cut short due to COVID-19.
After moving back to the Cook Islands for a year, Iro landed at Cronulla in 2021.
A first-grade debut the following year, plus some strong seasons for Newtown in NSW Cup, eventually convinced Fitzgibbon to give him a chance at left centre.
He has not looked back, missing just one game since coming into the team in round four as he makes up for lost time.
“It took time but everyone develops differently and I had time to work on my craft,” Iro said.
“I always knew what my goal was, so I just kept working at it.
“Fitzy gave me a couple of things to work on.
“I made sure in pre-season that he saw me focus on them and that’s got me where I am now.
“As a kid, I always said it was my dream, so it’s still surreal that I’m here now.”
