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Kulikefu Finefeuiaki’s Maroons debut is more than just a chance to grace rugby league’s biggest stage. It’s also his chance to repay the state that gave him and his family a “second chance at life”.
Growing up in Mangere in South Auckland, the softly spoken but cheeky Finefeuiaki was witness to “a lot of things that you don’t want to see as a little kid”.
“It was a pretty tough area to grow up in. There was a lot of violence,” the 22-year-old said.
When he was a child, his extended family moved over from New Zealand to Ipswich, with his immediate family the last ones to leave.
“My parents made the decision to move over to Australia to Ipswich for a better life and a better opportunity,” he said.
“I just want to repay that to Queensland. They gave my family a better purpose and life.”
Finefeuiaki was 11 years old during the move, before he blossomed into a future NRL star through his junior days at the Redbank Plains Bears.
“The young Kuli was a bit chubbier back then,” he said, when asked how his younger self would view his Origin ascent.
“Every time I was running on the field I was getting a bit too tired, so I had to lay off the food a bit. The young Kuli just liked to live life and play footy with his cousins and all his older brothers.
“It gave me that desire to try and do it as a job and a life. Looking back at it now, I hope [young Kuli] is proud and knows that I’m laying off the big food now.”
Finefeuiaki was heralded a slumbering talent before his first steps in the NRL for the North Queensland Cowboys. His shift to the Dolphins has unlocked his potential.
After he was ushered into Maroons camp in 2025, he took the opportunity to learn how the more seasoned forwards prepared, and sought to elevate his game from short-stint wrecking ball to 80-minute weapon.
Come 2026, and he has missed less than a minute of action across 12 games – courtesy of a late-game sin bin against the Bulldogs – and sits fifth in the competition for post-contact metres (825).
He said swearing off lu sipi, a Tongan lamb delicacy favoured by his father, was a sacrifice he had to make.
“I was having that a bit too much. Sorry, dad … it tastes good, but it’s not good for you,” Finefeuiaki said.
Instead, he observed how fellow Queensland stars Kurt Capewell and Reuben Cotter prepared for their games and tried to adopt those habits.
“They do a lot of extras after sessions,” he said. “Diet-wise, I changed a lot of island foods that weren’t good for me.”
Having been elevated from his 20th-man duties in game one, Finefeuiaki admits he shed tears when Maroons coach Billy Slater called to tell him he would line up on June 17, as Queensland fight to save the State of Origin series after their last-minute defeat in Sydney.
His selection comes after Pat Carrigan was ruled out for six to eight weeks, having undergone surgery on a syndesmosis injury.
Finefeuiaki said he would need to find a new gear for the faster pace of Origin football, but vowed he was up for the fight.
“I didn’t think [selection] would come so soon, to be honest,” he said.
“I was just at home, chilling with my parents, watching footy, but to get the call from Billy – I was pretty emotional to my mum and had a bit of a cry.”
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