Moses Suli stars with brilliant debut in Tigers victory over South Sydney

PEOPLE didn’t know who Moses Suli was until he signed a $1.3 million contract. After 80 minutes in the NRL, they all know him now.

SYDNEY, AUSTRALIA — MARCH 03: Chris Lawrence of the Tigers celebrates scoring a try with team mates during the round one NRL match between the South Sydney Rabbitohs and the Wests Tigers at ANZ Stadium on March 3, 2017 in Sydney, Australia. (Photo by Mark Metcalfe/Getty Images)

MOSES Suli isn’t backing rival wingers to score against him.

That much is obvious.

In fact, it’s almost as if this $1.3 million teenage rookie has vowed, single-handedly, to restore our faith in that little club known as Wests Tigers Flyers Inc.

Suli was brilliant on debut.

For, yes, his brethren have taken a hit lately.

Fellow member Tim Simona currently sidelined, and facing life, after being charged with the most heinous of sporting offences — betting against yourself, your team, your mates.

And while yet to be proven, the charge strikes at the heart of the game. Not to mention every Tigers fan.

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Especially after coming off a season where they missed the playoffs by a solitary point.

Enter Suli.

Playing his debut game in first grade, the 18-year-old rookie knocked on with his first touch.

Yep ... dropped it cold.

But from there? Well, Suli not only recovered, but threw two try assists, scored a third and generally delivered on weeks of hype.

“Impressive,’’ coach Jason Taylor agreed afterwards. “I’m happy for him to start every game with an error if he’s going to do what he did after that.

“He’s big, strong and really confident.

“One of the things that stood out for us in pre-season was that when he makes an error, he just gets up and gets on with it.

“A lot of 18-year-olds would have been ruing that mistake tonight. But he’s not 18 in that regard.”

Apart from owning wonderful speed, footwork and vision, Suli is also larger than your favourite reality TV star’s ego.

And, yes, he was up against a man with all the movement of Captain Pegleg.

But more on Greg Inglis shortly.

The real talking point is how Suli will now link with the Holy Trinity that is Brooks, Moses, Tedesco.

Apart from his opening spill, Suli’s only other noticeable error was when he was fooled by Bunnies No. 6 Cody Walker, who kicking immediately from a scrum play found a limping Inglis, who scored

Fellow Tigers flanker Dave Nofoaluma was outstanding too.

Suli scored his first NRL try midway through the second half.

Playing as if he needed to break 200 metres to get paid, Nofoaluma eventually churned through 211 while also creating several opportunities, through his seven tackle breaks and two line breaks, that would eventually lead to points for others.

Hell, the Tigers No. 2 even offloaded — yes, offloaded — five times.

In the opening 40 minutes alone, this 2016 City Origin representative had churned through 106 metres — more than any other player on the field and twice that of every Bunnie bar Robbie Farah, who had 60.

Then two minutes after the break, he was away again. This time starting the run that would see Mitchell Moses score 90m upfield.

And, yes, his opposite number Bryson Goodwin would scored three tries by the finish.

But Nofoaluma was hardly Robinson Crusoe when talking of how they came about.

“Dave was our best player over the back half of last year,’’ Taylor said. “He’s really turned his life and footy around and you saw that tonight.

Almost everything Suli touched turned to gold.

“There was a point there where we thinking ‘is he going to stop offloading?’. But they were creative, too. Really smart.”

But still, now they have Suli too.

A kid who produced one of the greatest arrivals by a winger since Smokin’ Joe Kilroy doubled his two cheerleaders into Lang Park on a Harley-Davidson.

Truly, this young bloke is the real deal. A genuine Next Big Thing.

Bet on it.