The ACT Brumbies operations manager almost had enough people living under his roof to field a side of his own.

"I don't know how our house survived actually," Abel said.

"We had wide hallways in big homesteads. Thrash each other around, knock the walls around. Some days I'd get out, plough the paddock, put the sprinklers on and they would play in mud a foot deep.

"It slows everybody down, brings them all back. Blokes like me can keep up with the young fellas that way.

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"They've all played rugby, even the two girls, We've got 12 of them, the 10 boys played rugby and the two girls played rugby. We're looking forward to the grandkids coming through, we'll all be out there watching under 7s next year."

One can only imagine how heated those games became in the hallways of the Abel family's Griffith homestead, or in the paddocks on the 225,000 acre property on the banks of the Murrumbidgee River.

Ages range from Mone at 33 to Ranier at 17. Robbie, Charlie and Jacob are all playing Super Rugby.

Seven of the kids are their own, while five were taken in after separate car accidents claimed a mother and left another father a paraplegic.

Having a big family is all Abel has known. He is one of six with five stepbrothers. His wife Michelle is one of 13. His mum was one of 15. Three uncles were Maori All Blacks together, two were All Blacks.

At one point he was playing club football in New Zealand with 12 brothers or cousins in the same team. Now 56, he is holding out to do something similar with his boys, who shifted to Canberra to chase a Brumbies dream.

It would have been a bit of a shock to the system when the family relocated to Canberra and those vast paddocks were replaced by a little backyard.

"We went from there to a 14 square home with 20-odd people. Sometimes we had 26 of us," Abel said.

"When we had all of the boys living at home, we had six boys living in the shed and shopping was a daily event. It was usually a couple of trolleys a day. It was pretty massive, especially when they were playing and training. It's much simpler these days, they look after themselves.

"For a while there we had eight of the Royals first graders living in our house. When you've got so many, having a few others doesn't matter.

"We never went anywhere as a family because there are too many of us. People would say 'come over for dinner', and what, bring 20 of us? They can't handle that. But for us, having their mates didn't matter. What's another five when you already have 20?"

Just don't ask Abel to rattle off all the birthdays.

"I don't remember all of that. That's my wife's job. I wouldn't have a clue," Abel laughed.

Good luck with the grandkids, because there are already 17 with more on the way.

The Abel football family tree: Mone (33), AJ, Naseri (32), Robbie, Kesomi, Tyson (31), Kolo (29), Charles (28), Dallas (26), Georgia (24), Jacob (23), Ranier (17).