Inu's circle of friends

IF the whispers are true, Krisnan Inu is back thanks to CityRail.

Krisnan Inu

IF the whispers are true, Krisnan Inu is back thanks to CityRail.

Resurrected like trucker caps because, eight years ago, his morning train rides to Westfields Sports High just happened to stop at Liverpool. The very station where a hulking schoolboy named Tony Williams got on.

"I guess that's where we first really met, where we became friends,"

Inu recalls, sitting now in clothes gifted by sponsor Nike because much of his own gear is still being packed up in Auckland.

"I'd get on at Minto station, Tony at Liverpool. Then of an afternoon we'd leave school, catch the train back to Cabramatta and walk to junior training."

So you two are tight then?

"Definitely," the Polynesian winger continues.

"If you throw in Westfields, Cabramatta, our time at Parramatta, I couldn't tell you how many games of footy we've played together.

"But we're also similar people. Close to our families, both go to church ... there's a bond than goes deeper than just throwing a footy around."

And this, according to the whispers, is why he's back in the NRL spotlight. Why in the space of a fortnight, this previously unwanted Warrior has scored three tries, set up two more and kicked six goals. Busted eight tackles, broken three lines and averaged 111 metres from his wing.

According to the beating drums, it's no coincidence that Inu, struggling with the Auckland Vulcans as recently as three weeks ago, was courted by Canterbury at exactly the same time as they were enticing Williams to Belmore.

Sure, Inu was playing awful. But T-Rex ... well, he's among the hottest commodities in the game. And what better way to snare the big unit than signing his close mate for four years.

The Doggies, of course, are denying it. And while CEO Todd Greenberg was unavailable for comment last night, it's understood he and the board are hosing down said rumour.

But with all respect to the code's No. 1 club boss, this is League Land. People fib. Just ask the great Fuifui Moimoi, who for years has been telling us he speak no English.

And anyway, who cares if Inu is the steam iron in a raffle where T-Rex is that family trip to Sea World? Especially when the same was once said of Glenn Stewart. A footballer who, years back, was tacked on to the lucrative contract of kid brother Brett.

And we all know how that yarn turned out. Yet when we put the package deal rumour to Inu - suggesting Canterbury only secured Williams' signature a week back after first dangling him like some Rex Hunt lure - the winger seems genuinely surprised.

"If it's true I haven't heard it," he says. "I spoke with Tony after he signed but, you know, he's a big boy, makes his own decisions.

"I'm sure he was thinking about his family rather than me."

But then, minutes later, comes this: "Plus, there were a few of us went to Westfields and played for Cabramatta. Kris Keating, Trent Hodkinson, myself ... obviously Tony is happy all us boys are now coming back together."

This, though, is a yarn about Krisnan Nevada Inu. And regardless of how his signing came about, the undeniable truth is that he's suddenly displaying the same touches of class, that 'Made In Minto' brilliance also inhabiting Jarryd Hayne, that earned his four Test caps for New Zealand.

So where the bloody hell have they been? And how does a footballer signed by the Warriors for $300,000 a year, a livewire who illuminated the 2011 NRL finals, wind up playing all but three games of 2012 in NSW Cup?

"Ahh, I'm not sure," Inu says. "I just know it was hard on everyone because I wasn't signed to play reserves. I knew what I had to do and I didn't want to disappoint. But you ask how I'm playing differently, it's hard to say because, over there, I wasn't being played."

Quizzed on whether having the coach who signed him, Ivan Cleary, replaced by Brian McClennan proved problematic, Inu added: "Obviously when you sign with a club, you expect the coach who approaches you to stay there. That didn't happen. But I know when I came here to the Bulldogs, first thing coach Des Hasler did was show faith in me. Why? Who knows. Maybe he saw things in me others hadn't ... "

Perhaps the only certainty is that his transformation has been swift.

So quick, Inu is currently bunking down with family at Liverpool - grabbing a lift to training every day with fellow Bulldog Greg Eastwood.

"This whole thing, the only way to describe it is like a child's dream," Inu says. "Getting no game time in New Zealand, my manager was looking to get me out.

"So one Tuesday night he rings to say Canterbury is interested. By Thursday morning, I'm training with them. I didn't even really have time to pack ... Nike have been looking after me for two weeks."

Of course, the big question with Inu has never been class, but consistency. After scoring a miraculous try to roll Wests Tigers from last year's finals series, Cleary said: "I'm always confident when Krisnan is involved in anything like that because he's the only guy who can do things like that."

And yet even Cleary, the big believer, had played him only a handful of times that season.

So how will Inu finally find his mojo at Belmore then? What does he have here that was missing across the ditch? Is it Dessie, is it family, is it his Cabramatta mates?

"More than anything," he says, "it's opportunity. I've been given that one shot."

Yep, even if it comes courtesy of CityRail.

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