![\"Setu](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/ce63c8c9ad934db1143cb41871e5ff94.jpeg\"\/)
<\/p>\nIf Setu Tu hits the jackpot with an NRL debut in Las Vegas, the St George Illawarra recruit knows it’ll be down to a selfless decision his brother made 12 years ago after the tragic death of their parents.<\/p>\n
The 27-year-old Dragons winger Tu has never been to the USA, and knows the bright lights of Sin City will feel a long way from his home in the small Samoan village of Saleimoa.<\/p>\n
Tu had a hard upbringing back in Samoa; he and his three siblings had lost both of their parents to cancer by the time Setu was 12.<\/p>\n
“That’s life, I guess,” Tu told AAP.<\/p>\n
“It was pretty tough but having family around helps.”<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Setu Tu flying towards a try for the Dragons in the pre-season clash with the Knights. (Mark Evans\/AAP PHOTOS)<\/p>\n
Tu’s older brother Rob assumed pastoral care of his siblings and made the big decision to relocate the family to New Zealand for a better life in Auckland when Setu was 15.<\/p>\n
“I lost my parents when we were young so my older brother took care of that role and moved me and my siblings over,” Tu said.<\/p>\n
“I’m grateful for him, playing that role for us.<\/p>\n
“He could’ve been playing footy. But I feel like he sacrificed his dream so I could live mine.”<\/p>\n
That footy career has been hard won for Tu, who has played the majority of his reserve-grade career at the Warriors since making his NSW Cup debut there in 2019.<\/p>\n
To keep the dream alive while living in Auckland, Tu worked a part-time job delivering doors and windows to building sites.<\/p>\n
“I was pretty good at it,” he said with a laugh.<\/p>\n
But Tu now appears closer to a long-awaited NRL debut than ever before, having arrived at the Dragons in the off-season on a development deal.<\/p>\n
The sacrifices have continued since Tu’s arrival; his partner and two kids have remained behind in Auckland but are hopeful of moving over to reunite with Tu in the coming weeks.<\/p>\n
“They’ve made a huge sacrifice for myself,” he said.<\/p>\n
Shane Flanagan’s side has a genuine selection battle in the outside backs ahead of their season-opener against Canterbury in Vegas.<\/p>\n
Christian Tuipulotu, Mat Feagai, Tyrell Sloan, David Fale and Tu are all competing for two starting spots on the wings.<\/p>\n
Sloan and Tuipulotu were first-choice starters last year, but Flanagan is continuing to tinker with his rebuilding side and has been impressed by recruits Fale and Tu this pre-season.<\/p>\n
“At training, they’ve been great, real good, probably exceeded my expectations,” the coach said on Friday.<\/p>\n
“One of them or two of them could force their way into the round-one game.”<\/p>\n
Tu continued to push his case in the Dragons’ 28-18 pre-season defeat of Newcastle on Saturday with a runaway first-half try and 154 run metres.<\/p>\n
After all the waiting, sacrifice and hurt, Tu truly would feel like the luckiest man in Las Vegas with an NRL debut.<\/p>\n
“I don’t have words for it,” Tu said.<\/p>\n
“Obviously it’s been a journey for myself, me and my family. It means a lot for myself, and mostly for my family as well.”<\/p>\n
For now, he’s just excited to check in with Rob, who still lives in Auckland, about his performance in the pre-season trial.<\/p>\n
“I know he’s proud of me and I’m pretty sure he watched our game tonight,” Tu said.<\/p>\n
“He’s going to say something about me running hard.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"If Setu Tu hits the jackpot with an NRL debut in Las Vegas, the St George Illawarra recruit…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":464873,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[568],"tags":[64,63,2623,761,762,158,238069,85,155152],"class_list":["post-464872","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-nrl","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-las-vegas","tag-national-rugby-league","tag-nationalrugbyleague","tag-nrl","tag-setu-tu","tag-sports","tag-tu"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/464872","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=464872"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/464872\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/464873"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=464872"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=464872"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=464872"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}