HE IS making an often mispronounced name for himself as Manly's interchange enforcer, but a bar fight five years ago gave Jack Afamasaga the kick up the butt he needed to focus his aggressive energies on football.

Signed by Parramatta from New Zealand as a rough diamond teenager, Afamasaga (pronounced Ah-fah-mah-sung-ah) arrived with big expectations and a bigger head, and learned the hard way that flying fists make for a short footy career.

He and best friend Weller Hauraki - who will play for the Eels in the premier league grand final before Afamasaga steps out on Telstra Stadium for the NRL decider on Sunday - came to Parramatta together but left none of their late-night New Zealand ways behind.

"I was getting into fights, nothing that the club would be proud of," Afamasaga says.

One evening, while he and Hauraki were at Parramatta Leagues Club, they were involved in a big punch-up with fellow patrons, and the Eels showed the pair the door. "They just tore up my contract on the spot," he says.

It was then that Afamasaga and Hauraki, with heads down, phoned their parents in New Zealand to say they wanted to come home - that they were leaving when it got tough.

"I had a chat to my mum and dad and told them I wanted to come back," Afamasaga says. "They said they'd support me no matter what I did, but they also made me realise I had a good opportunity here."

Instead of fleeing their problems, the two sought to bounce back with the help of then Eels recruitment and development officer Mark Horo - who scouted them after an under-17s trial match in Wellington between Parramatta and Wainuiomata. With the contract money gone, Horo took the boys in and looked after them as his own. "He was like a father figure to us," Hauraki says. "He helped us out a lot."

From junior representative games, they were thrown into a pit with battle-hardened old warriors in the Jim Beam Cup, but Afamasaga and Hauraki showed their class for Guildford and were invited back to Parramatta the next season at the request of former coach Brian Smith.

Hauraki recalls: "We just said to ourselves that we came here to play footy and make something of ourselves. We weren't going to do that back home, we were out drinking and getting into mischief there. From then on, me and Jack put our heads down and worked hard."

Horo maintains to this day that the decision to sack the players was unjust. "I still think it was wrong," he said. "From the three trips I made to New Zealand, they were the only two players I picked up. I had a tremendous belief in them, but I was more concerned about their lives off the field.

"It wouldn't have mattered whether they made it or not, I just wanted to make sure they were OK. But I am glad they have made it, I always knew they would."

If Horo hadn't come along, Afamasaga could well have been lost to league, given that he spent most his junior years in the town of Levin playing rugby. He has pedigree, too - his cousin is the mascara-wearing All Blacks centre Ma'a Nonu.

Afamasaga will forgo the make-up, thank you very much, but he does plan to be as big a hit in his chosen code.

"I would love to play for the Kiwis," says Afamasaga, who is of Samoan descent.

The call-up can't be too far away if he keeps progressing as he has.

These days, Afamasaga describes himself as a quiet family man off the field. His partner Tenielle is due to give birth to the couple's first child in five weeks. Their son, to be named Jackson Malaki, will probably grow up to be the best league player the world has seen, given his father's genes and the guidance of his two godfathers, Hauraki and Parramatta's Kiwi Test star Krisnan Inu.

Afamasaga will be giving people plenty of opportunity to get his name right before then.