Coming off his first NRL season, rising star Latu Fainu has reflected on the year that was with the Wests Tigers, which was plagued by a string of hamstring injuries.
Joining the club from the Manly Sea Eagles on a four-year $2 million contract, Fainu has always been touted for big things since a young age, but while he showed glimpses of his potential, he struggled to find his best.
Now in his second season under Benji Marshall, he looks to cement a regular spot in the first-grade team and will likely contend with Tallyn Da Silva for the utility spot off the interchange bench with Lachlan Galvin and Jarome Luai being handed the two spots in the halves.
This has seen him lose over five kilograms and increase his fitness after he was one of three players to be handed warnings by the club after failing to meet standards after returning for pre-season training.
Continuing his journey into the 2025 NRL season, the young playmaker spoke toย Zero Tackleย about the importance of his family as he will once again be joined on the Top 30 rosters with brothers Sione and Samuela Fainu.
Opening up about the importance of family, Fainu revealed that he and his brother Samuela Fainu stay up to re-watch the game once they return home while his parents still give them lessons on what to do better straight after they come from the field.
"We [Samuela and I] stay up and then my mum will give us lessons on what to do better and then you've got my dad screaming at us when we make a mistake," he toldย Zero Tackle.
"First, it's a long phone call straight after the game in the changing rooms, so you can't hear the end of it, but I love them.
"They really help me and my brothers out so it's been great."
Continuing to speak about his family, Fainu revealed that his older brother Manase Fainu - a former NRL hooker for Tonga and Manly Sea Eagles - helped him the most through the tough times away from the field after he struggled with injuries throughout the entire 2024 campaign and became his rock.
The oldest of the Fainu brothers, Manase was the first to break into the NRL system and was highly regarded as the future No.9 of the club, which saw him appear in 34 first-grade matches between 2018 and 2019.
However, his NRL career came to an unfortunate close after it was just beginning due to an off-field incident that has seen him incarcerated since 2022.
"He's helped me and all my brothers out and there's always trust since we were young," Latu added.
"Honestly, he just tells me to keep my head down, put trust in my work and make sure that I have trust in what the stars are doing because they know what they're doing, especially with Benji.
"Benji's really helped me and my family out, so having trust in Benji really helps understand where we're going to go."
Only featuring nine times last season, Fainu failed to string together more than three consecutive matches as a hamstring injury continued to plague him and didn't allow him to find consistent game time.
"Putting God first really helped me to get to this season, especially having a long pre-season," he added.
"Benji and the coaching staff really set out and have trusted me to go into pre-season making sure I'm right and making sure than I'm 100 per cent.
"Benji really gave me trust into not going to the internationals to play for Tonga and really had trust in me to go out this season and have a crack at it."
