A tribal tattoo on Salesi Foketi's left arm includes Isaiah 6:8, a verse that guides his choices.
"It's Isaiah 6:8 it says, 'Here I am, send me,' it has kind of encompassed my life, to trust God where he sends me," said Foketi, who attends weekly Bible study with Roosters teammates.
That path has brought the 22-year-old to his first grand final, where the Roosters meet Newcastle at Accor Stadium on Sunday.
"This is not only my dream," Foketi told AAP. "It's my dad's dream as well."
His father, Solomone, left Tonga for New Zealand in his early twenties, hoping to become a rugby union fullback.
He later settled in Auckland and switched to league, and nearly had an opportunity with the Warriors system.
"He almost had a crack with the Warriors system but he had a language barrier and that ended up falling through," Foketi explained.
Foketi, Solomone's only son among four children, grew up playing football with his father and joined the Roosters as a teenager.
"So right from when I could walk I had a football in my hand, backyard training sessions on five metres of grass," Foketi said.
With the grand final approaching, he said church remained part of his support network, even if the build-up changed his routine.
"Luckily enough, church isn't a place, it's the people," the back-rower quipped.