The making of fearless Cowboys tyro Kuli Finefeuiaki

Rookie North Queensland forward Kulikefu Finefeuiaki has been running through brick walls for his team, and his schoolboy coach is not the least bit surprised.

The 19-year-old second-rower will on Sunday play his first NRL match in the starting side, against Gold Coast in Robina, after making a name for himself in nine games off the bench with his warrior mentality.

Finefeuiaki, known to his mates as ‘Kuli’, was mentored by Ipswich State High School head coach Josh Bretherton, who has an anecdote that sums the player up.

“The thing that has always stood out about Kuli is that he is lovely off the field and highly aggressive on the field,” Bretherton told AAP.

“Kuli is very, very fearless and even though he is young you can see in the NRL that he just charges into people.

“Back in Year 10 we had a trial game on the front oval at school. He took a run from 15 metres out, ran over a poor defender like he was a speed bump and scored a try.

“He celebrated the try while blood was streaming from his nose and running through his mouth and teeth.

“We had to point out to Kuli that he was bleeding quite severely. That sort of want and desire in a 15-year-old is rare.”

Finefeuiaki played for three years with the Ipswich High side. He joined the Cowboys while at school, the year before Ipswich won the national title.

Bretherton said the way the Cowboys had handled Finefeuiaki – from his signing through to his NRL introduction – was first class.

“Dane took a real interest in Kuli and what he is like away from football before the Cowboys signed him. He was really impressive,” Bretherton said.

Finefeuiaki is defending in the NRL at an impressive 93.1 per cent efficiency rate.

“(Cowboys coach) Todd Payten has done a great job on his defence and Kuli has done an awesome job as well,” Bretherton said.

“With us he was physical and brave but technically his defence needed work.

“I still speak to Kuli and he said to me for a long time that the Cowboys were happy with him but Todd had asked him to improve defensively before moving into the NRL.

“They have been very clear with him.

“With the ball we are seeing everything we always knew about Kuli. He carries the ball aggressively, finds his front and just doesn’t like the idea of being tackled.”