On certain days, Eliesa Katoa still longs for the conveniences of life back home in Tonga when he gets back to his modest Melbourne rental home after training.
He’s getting used to it now, having been away for seven years after first packing his bags for New Zealand at the age of 16 to take up a rugby union scholarship, an opportunity that gave him the chance to change the futures of his entire immediate family.
Since then he’s worked tirelessly to not only become an NRL regular, but a back-rower who through the first three months of this season has been one of the best in the whole competition.
Life as a frontline player for the Storm these days means Katoa has become his family’s main financial provider, a role he knew he wanted to take on from the moment his father passed away back in 2012.
It’s the knowledge of what he’s doing for his family back in the Kingdom that gets him through the tough times.
“It’s still a bit hard and sad at times. It gets a bit lonely here without the family,” he tells NRL.com.
Although I miss them every day, I am the main provider for the family, so I have got to do what I have got to do.
Eliesa Katoa
The 24-year-old, whose home hamlet of Hihifo has just about 300 residents, thinks that the sheer magnitude of the population in Victoria’s capital city is a significant change, even though his time in Auckland eased the transition.
The move was also helped by having his mum and three siblings come to stay with him for three months last year, something Katoa had been trying to do ever since he made his NRL debut with the Warriors back in Round 1 of the 2020 season.
“I finally got them here to Melbourne last year with the help of the club. They stayed for three months and that was their first time leaving Tonga,” he explains.
“It was great to see them out here and they got to watch me play a couple of games last year which was good.
“But I think the big move for me was from Tonga to Auckland. Going there with only a little bit of English, having to adapt to the environment with no fams as well, that was pretty hard.
“Auckland was not home for me; Tonga is home to me. That first move was the hardest one.”
It’s also helped being at a club like the Storm where the majority of the playing group have moved interstate or overseas to be there.
“I was at the Warriors and it’s such a great family club there, but moving here it’s a different level,” he says.
“We don’t really have family here to spend a lot of time with, it’s more just us every day, so even on our days off we are catching up for coffees and that.”
The Mate Ma’a Tonga representative goes into this week’s bye in scintillating form, with six tries in 11 games and a glut of career-best performances already under his belt in 2024.
Before making his debut with the Warriors in the first round of the 2020 season, Katoa had not participated in a top-tier senior match. As a result, he is still acquainting himself with the nuances of the game and the full scope of coach Craig Bellamy’s expectations.
“I am just a bit more confident with how the system works and the boys around me this year,” he says.
“Last year was adapting to how they play the game and in Melbourne everything is about the effort areas, which I learned when I got here.”
Katoa will make his first trip back to Auckland after leaving the Warriors at the end of 2022 when the Storm play his old team in Round 15 at Go Media Stadium next month.
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