Eliesa Katoa has revealed his heartache at being unable to fly his mother from Tonga to watch him in the NRL grand final as the Melbourne edge forward looks to claim his first premiership. The 25-year-old hails from a village called Koulo on the island of Lifuka, 200km away from the Pacific nation’s capital of Nuku’alofa. “We’ve been here last year and came up short, but I feel like we’ve been building to this,” Katoa said. The usually mild-mannered Utoikamanu has shown no fear of Brisbane this week, labelling Broncos players as “stuck up”. “He’s been amazing and I feel like after the Origin period he came back and he’s been a different beast,” Katoa said.