Can Tonga turn their golden generation into a new era of stars? ^Featured

It wasn't Daniel Tupou and Kotoni Staggs, because in the "Origin vs Test" discourse there's almost always only going to be one winner: interstate football surpassed the international game as the pinnacle of the sport some time ago. Tonga will almost definitely get them for the World Cup, but not when there's a blue jersey to be worn in Perth.

It wasn't Moeaki Fotuaika or Joe Ofahengaue either, although they were important as well. The two props missed out on selection in the top 17 due to the quality of forwards available, a fair wrap given the two were playing for the Maroons this time last year and a mark of the increasing talent pool the Tongans have at their disposal.

For the first time since he made his historic defection, it's not even Jason Taumalolo. The Cowboys lock changed international rugby league forever when he switched from New Zealand to Tonga in 2017, turning the Pacific Island nation into a powerhouse who have since beaten New Zealand, Great Britain and Australia.

The pandemic warped everyone's perceptions of time and cost rugby league its best chance of capitalising on Tonga's rise – that 2017 World Cup and Tonga's run to the semifinals and the vision of Mt Smart Stadium turning into a singing sea of red flags for the semifinal against England, one of the greatest Test matches ever played, doesn't feel like it was five years ago.

But it was, and the passage of time is why the most important Tongan players in Young's squad are potential debutants Talatau Amone, Tolotau Koula and Will Penisini.

All three of them seem like stars of the future, but they are still at the beginning of their rugby league careers – Koula and Penisni are just 19, while Amone is the elder statesman of the group at 20.

That means they were in their mid-teens when they saw Taumalolo pick up the red jersey over the black and white, when they saw Siosuia Taukeiaho, Manu Ma'u, Andrew Fifita and David Fusitu'a follow Taumalolo's lead, when they witnessed Tonga's brutalising win over New Zealand in Waikato and their gallant defeat to England in that semifinal.Their formative rugby league memories aren't just packed with NRL moments and Origin series, but also of Tongan triumphs.

Players like Amone and Koula and Penisini are the final by-product of Taumalolo's decision all those years ago, the ripple effect we could not perceive back then but surely knew must have been coming.

They are the first of the new generation, the sons of a tomorrow that was promised five years ago and has finally arrived.

Taumalolo was always going to play well for Tonga — when he made his switch, he was arguably the best player in the world and certainly the best forward.

Fifita had come off a brilliant Origin series for the Blues and was selected in the Kangaroos squad before coming home. Ma'u was one of the best backrowers in the league and Taukeiaho one of the best props. Fusitu'a was a year off becoming the NRL's top try scorer.

It was as close to a golden generation of talent as Tonga were likely ever to get, but golden generations don't always keep glittering once everyone grows up and gets old and moves on.

Coming across a boon of talented players who are all the same age is a blessing, but to make the most of that blessing it has to be converted into something more sustainable.

That's easier said than done, and there's no exact formula for it, but Tonga has the chance to do it.

The Tongan side finally has a past that was put up in lights and can be easily and fondly remembered, and the benefit of that comes in the future, in players like Amone, Koula and Penisini, and other potential debutants like Haumole Olakau'atu and Keaon Koloamatangi, who weren't there as players when the revolution began but were there as Tongans.

The red jersey always meant a lot, back to the days Tonga played their first matches in the 1980s. It meant history and family and connecting to one's culture and giving back to the community that meant so much.

But now, there are also past glories to celebrate and those glories inspire the next generation of players to emulate their heroes and create a legacy of their own.

And they can talk about those games from 2017 and beyond the same way Queenslanders talk about 1995 and the eight in a row, the same way New South Wales fans talk about 2014 and Bryan Fletcher's hand grenade, and the same way, in generations past when a Test jersey was the pinnacle of the sport, Australian fans would remember the Rorke's Drift Test and the Swinton Massacre and the Invincibles and the Unbeatables and all the other great Kangaroo sides.The past can be more than history and memory if it's used as the fuel that fires the present into the future.

That's how a golden generation becomes more than just a good tournament or two or a handy win here and there.

That's why Amone and Koula and Penisini, and other young players like 19-year-old halfback Isaiaya Katoa, are so important.

Their Tongan careers are beginning in a brand-new world, a world where Tonga can stand up to anybody and bow to nobody, a world where Tonga isn't a stepping stone to something greater – they're just something great.

- ABC