Canterbury coach Cameron Ciraldo places a big emphasis on hard work and perhaps no Bulldogs player understands the meaning of tough yakka better than winger Jethro Rinakama.
The 19-year-old might be referred to as Ratu - a title to reflect his family's chiefly status in his ancestral homeland of Fiji - but there are no airs and graces about Rinakama.
The teenager has juggled his training commitments while studying for an engineering degree and spent most of last season working for a demolition firm to make ends meet.
"We would go to shopping malls or like construction sites and demolish rooms and clean it up, haul it out in wheelbarrows. It's pretty hard work, Rinakama told AAP.
"I was still doing Jersey Flegg training so I'd do demolition in the morning and then I'd come in to train in the afternoon.
"I guess you could relate it to engineering, but it was more just a job for me so I could make some money."
Rinakama, who has three tries in his five-game NRL career, has been named to start on the wing against Penrith in Sunday's semi-final but could fall out of Ciraldo's gameday 17 if captain Stephen Crichton or Marcelo Montoya are passed fit to play.
If he does see gametime, the winger is relishing the chance to knock down Penrith's premiership dynasty and put Canterbury into their first preliminary final in over a decade.
It would be massive, I've only played one finals game but I just want to keep going and try to make the grand final," Rinakama said.
"That's a big goal but we want to get to a prelim first and take it week by week.
"They (Penrith) are definitely the benchmark of the competition for the last five years so it's going to be a big challenge for us."
Rinakama comes from good stock, his father Adriu was a rugby union player who represented Fiji at both 15s and sevens.
But a code switch in the future appears an unlikely prospect.
"I grew up in Sydney so mainly growing up watching the NRL" Rinakama said.
"I always watched sevens and I started out in union with West Harbour and got into a few rep teams but I made the decision two years ago just to stick with league."
