Las Vegas is a city built on neon lights and overnight luck, but for 26-year-old Setu Tu, stepping onto the pitch at Allegiant Stadium this Saturday is anything but a gamble. It is the culmination of a grueling, heartbreaking, and ultimately triumphant journey. When the St. George Illawarra Dragons winger makes his long-awaited NRL debut against the Canterbury Bulldogs, he won’t just be representing his club; he’ll be carrying the weight, the struggles, and the enduring love of his Samoan community and his Aiga.
Tu’s story doesn’t begin in a high-tech athletic academy; it begins in Saleimoa, a small village on the north-western coastline of Samoa, where he was raised by his beloved mother, Tuna. As a boy, the village rugby field was the center of life, but for Tu, it was forbidden ground. At just eight years old, he suffered from anxiety-related attacks that culminated in a terrifying blackout and seizure on the field. He was told he could never play contact sports again, and his mother strictly warned every school he attended to keep him off the field. Whenever he tried to sneak into a village game, his older brother would pull him away for his own safety.
But the true heartbreak of his childhood came at age 12, when his mother passed away from cancer. In Pacific culture, a mother is the absolute anchor of the ‘aiga (family). “I couldn’t sleep without her,” Tu recalled, describing himself as a “mommy’s boy” who was always on her hip. Her loss plunged him into deep depression and triggered night terrors that lasted for months. With his father out of the picture, his village and extended family stepped in—a true testament to the Pacific communal way of life. Tu bounced between four different relatives’ homes, staying at one for six months before moving to the next. There were days when his grief was so heavy that he would spend the entire day simply sitting at his mother’s grave.
It was sport—initially soccer and netball—that became his lifeline and his way out of the darkness. At 15, his older brother Robertson, who was just 21 and starting a family of his own, made a massive sacrifice to move Tu to New Zealand to restart his life. Tu deeply acknowledges this profound sibling sacrifice, noting, “I feel like my story is my brother’s story as well”.
Incredibly, Tu didn’t even play Rugby League until he was 18. Since then, his path has been a relentless uphill battle marked by setbacks that would have broken a lesser man. He spent years bouncing between the systems of the Warriors, Storm, and Dolphins, constantly fighting to crack the top grade. Just as he was on the verge of his NRL debut in 2024, a torn ACL shattered his dream the week before.
The sacrifices compounded off the field as well. Forced into a COVID quarantine bubble while playing for the Warriors in Queensland, Tu missed the birth of his eldest daughter, Olive, witnessing her arrival only through a FaceTime screen. Living on a meager “train and trial” contract to chase this dream, Tu has been fighting not for wealth, but for the realization of a lifelong goal for his wife, Faaolataga, and their two daughters, Olive and Athalia.
His unwavering faith and relentless work ethic were finally rewarded after a strong preseason with the Dragons. Fearing he was about to be scolded for a mistake in a trial game by coach Shane Flanagan, Tu was instead handed the news of a lifetime: he was starting in Vegas. The tears he had tried to hold back flowed freely as the weight of every sacrifice finally hit him.
This weekend, as the bright lights of Allegiant Stadium shine down, Tu’s mind will be flooded with love and joy. He’ll be thinking of his daughters, his wife, his brother Robertson, and, most importantly, his late mother Tuna. From the village of Saleimoa to the Nevada desert, Setu Tu’s debut is more than just a game of rugby. It is a powerful reminder that while life’s hardships can test the spirit, the unbreakable strength of family, sacrifice, and community can carry you all the way to your dreams.
