Youngster's death gives perspective amid NRL's torment Wests Tigers star Robbie Farah among the mourners at Mosese Fotuaika's funeral. The word "tragedy" will no doubt be tossed around at the start of yet another rugby league season trying to extract itself from the latest dose, quite literally, of controversy. Players facing lengthy suspensions, as is the case at Cronulla, may feel their world has ground to a halt. It will be deeply disappointing to the athletes and completely horrifying to fans, whose team now swims through the murkiest of waters. But tragic? Let's reserve such serious language for moments that dwarf the game and all its associated drama, sombre occasions like the funeral of young Wests Tiger Mosese Fotuaika, who was found dead in Sydney last week. Wests Tigers players and staff enter the funeral of Mosese Fotuaika, held in Cleveland, east of Brisbane. Just days before their season opener against Newcastle, almost 100 representatives from the Tigers flew to Brisbane to farewell the 20-year-old, whose funeral was held on Thursday morning in Cleveland on Brisbane's bayside. He was later laid to rest as a shattered family, friends and club paid their final respects. A former schoolboy star at the Gold Coast's Keebra Park State High, Fotuaika seemed to have the future cradled in the palm of his skilful hands. A wonderful running forward, Fotuaika was part of the Tigers" Under 20 side that had won the 2012 premiership and had been rewarded with a call-up to the 25-strong NRL squad for 2013. Yet inside, the softly spoken and polite young man was trying to deal with burdens that couldn't be remedied by extra training or harder work. Away from home and an expectant father at 20, there was a growing amount on his broad shoulders. When he injured a pectoral muscle at the gym, potentially ruling him out for the season, the tipping point may have arrived. He would go home and take his own life. Fotuaika may have defined himself through rugby league but he was remembered at the service not for how well he tackled but his immeasurable worth as a son, brother, grandson, nephew, cousin and friend. Schoolmates from Keebra Park, the great league nursery that has strong ties with the Tigers, wore shirts and ties of the same colour as the school jersey in which he made his name. And many mourners wore the traditional Tongan tapa cloth as a mark of respect. Wests Tigers captain Robbie Farah was among the large crowd, as was Lote Tuqiri, Benji Marshall and almost all of the club's playing roster and football staff. Fotuaika's death had shaken the Tigers to the core and it was a fine testament to the club that they put their round-one preparations on hold to head north en masse. Former NRL prop Todd Payten, who coached Fotuaika in the Under 20s, was one of the speakers at the funeral, as was Jo Hallett, a teacher from Keebra Park. Payten had considered forfeiting the first Under 20s game of the season but the players wanted to take the field in Fotuaika's honour. The Tigers will wear black armbands when the play the Knights on Monday. They will take the field with heavy hearts and the most sobering perspective of what's really important, when the game needs it more than ever.