SYDNEY (Reuters) – New Zealand rugby league great Olsen Filipaina died on Thursday at the age of 64, more than two weeks after being placed on a ventilator due to kidney failure, his brother Alf announced on Facebook.
“He was a fighter and fought for 16 days in ICU but our heavenly father needed a stand-off for his Rugby League Team, and now he has the best,” Alf wrote.
He had previously reported that his brother had been admitted to hospital on Jan. 13 with a stomach infection, before deteriorating with a longstanding kidney problem.
Filipaina, a centre/five-eighth, played 28 tests for New Zealand between 1977 and 1986.
Born in New Zealand to a Maori mother and Samoan father, he crossed the Tasman to join Balmain in Australia’s National Rugby League (NRL) in the 1980s. He played 107 NRL games and has lived in Sydney since retiring.
Nicknamed the “Galloping Garbo” because he worked as a garbage collector even while playing elite-level rugby, he was named a “Legend of League” by NZ Rugby League in 2007.
(Reporting by Andrew Both in Ballarat; Editing by Robert Birsel)
