Anasis Afia is the only local player named in the Fetu Samoa squad, who will take on Fiji Bulikula in rugby league's Pacific Championships showpiece next week.

The 24-year-old of Faleapuna and Aufaga villages told the Samoa Observer that she was proud and excited to have been able to make the squad while acknowledging there will be expectations of her as the team's sole island-based player. 

“The president of Rugby League Samoa called me to let me know that I was on the team and that I was the only local girl that made it into the Fetu Samoa squad," said Anasis. "I wish there were more local girls in the team and I hope that I can perform well enough that the selectors will have more trust in the quality of our local players."

Anasis first started playing rugby league in 2016 in the locally-run NRL School Girls’ Rugby League Championship for St Mary’s College and she got the award as the most valuable player.

She was also selected for the Fetu which played an Australian Defense Force team in 2019 as well as represented Samoa in the Pacific Games in tennis. This year she is likely to represent Samoa in the Pacific Games in Honiara, Solomon Islands after she was named in the rugby league 9s squad.

An advocate of the Spotlight Initiative, which uses rugby league to educate out-of-school youth on social challenges, ending violence against women and girls has been a particular focus for her. 

Her mentor and coach Gabrielle Apelu is happy for her and believes that Anasis met all key performance indicators the selectors had in place.

“Her athlete development has been ongoing for at least three years, resulting in her selection in the rugby league high-performance program TOA Athletes run by Apelu Sports supported by the Australian Government through the PacificAus sports program,” said Apelu. “This accelerated her growth and caused the selectors to take notice of her. 

"She is the first local to ever reach this milestone and is a big win for the high-performance program. She told me in January she wanted to play in the Fetu squad and we had to work towards achieving that goal."

In order to further develop her skills, they've thought of ways outside the box, which include taking up Brazilian Jiu Jitsu lessons, training with Samoa’s national wrestling team, touch competition and tag tournaments, and training five days a week and twice on four days.

This year she only had a total of two hours of rugby league game time and has proven herself on and off the field. She flies out this weekend to meet the rest of the Fetu Samoa squad and goes straight into camp.