He's taken the NRL by storm this year but Maika Sivo hasn't forgotten where his rugby league journey began - in Gundagai.
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Sivo, who is the NRL's leading tryscorer in first season with Parramatta, returned 'home' this week and was a star attraction at Anzac Park.
The Fijian international put the seniors through their paces on Tuesday night before a special session with the juniors on Friday.
He was thrilled to be able to help inspire the next generation.
"It's always good to give back to the community and the town," Sivo said.
"They are future Tigers and maybe future NRL players."
Plucked from a small Fijian village by Gundagai couple Don and Kathy Tuckwell, Sivo was part of the Tigers' drought-breaking premiership in 2015.
Coming from a rugby union background, Sivo had never played the game until arriving in Australia that year.
From his tryscoring heroics, where he crossed for 28 tries in 17 games, you couldn't tell.
He credits then coach Cameron Woo for putting him on the path which has seen him score 12 tries from 14 games in his debut season, and even represent his country.
"This is where my rugby league career began," Sivo said. "Gundagai was where it all started.
"Our coach that year Cameron Woo played a big part as I didn't know anything about rugby league when I came over here.
"He taught me lots about rugby league, all the rules and learning from an experienced bloke like him was good."
In his first visit back since debuting for the Eels in round one, Sivo will watch his former teammates tackle Kangaroos at Equex Centre on Saturday before heading back to Sydney.
The 25-year-old can't quite believe the progress he's made this season.
"At the end of the day I've just doing my job and the boys in the middle are doing all the hard stuff," Sivo said.
"As a winger it's my job to score tries."
He's hoping to help the eighth-placed club be more consistent in the back end of the season and believes the right attitude is key.
"A couple of times when we've had a close loss, or even a big loss, we didn't turn up with the right attitude," he said. "The last couple of weeks we've turned up with the right attitude and everything has been good from there."
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