“I was born and raised in Rarotonga and it was my brother that got me into football,” Joseph recalls.
“He was the captain for the Cook Islands.”
When it comes to pinpointing exactly what about his brother’s love for football helped inspire his own journey in the game, Joseph isn’t sure. ‘
But he really has followed in his footsteps.
“He used to play striker, I used to play striker. We both started at the front and ended up at the back,” he says.
“I play alongside him as centre backs for Tupapa Maraeranga. I’m a lot more confident when I’m playing with him.”
He doesn’t have his brother alongside him here in Apia, but Joseph believes he has a good amount of experience to get by without him.
A member of this same team two years ago, Joseph was one of the younger members of the squad which won through the Preliminary to qualify for the 2013 OFC U-17 Championship.
While young back then, he says it was a great introduction to the game.
“There’s a lot of challenges in this tournament like New Zealand, they’re a good team and I have nothing against that, but it makes it hard.”
Joseph says one thing he misses this time around is having that Preliminary round, which gave his side some tough matches before they were forced to make the step up.
“It’s been hard for the team because for us it’s better for us to play in that first tournament before playing in harder ones like this,” he explains.
“I don’t think our players are completely ready to start in this tournament. We all come from the Cook Islands, but not from the same island so we’re still working on building those strong bonds.”
“If it had been like last time we would have had a couple of good games together to prepare us for the next stage.
The Cook Islands lost their opening match 3-0 to Papua New Guinea. Having held them to just 1-0 two years ago, Joseph says Tuesday’s result is unacceptable.
“I’m not really happy about the outcome. We’re going to try our best, forget about it and focus on the next matches.
“My personal goal is for us to win at least two games.”
The Cook Islands will play New Caledonia at 7pm on Thursday 15 January.

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