Etonia Nabuli goes from carrying bags at a Fiji hotel to grand final with Penrith after being discovered by Andrew Johns and Brad Fittler Etonia Nabuli has gone from being a hotel porter in Fiji to playing in a grand final with Penrith. Picture: John Fotiadis Source: DailyTelegraph HE ARRIVED in Australia as a humble Fijian porter who had never owned a pair of footy boots. Yet eight months on, and with a brand new pair of Asics on his feet, Etonia Nabuli is set to complete the greatest story of the rugby league season when he runs onto ANZ Stadium this Sunday for the NRL grand final day. Plucked from obscurity by Andrew Johns and Brad Fittler, whose bags the 23-year-old carried after they arrived at his Intercontinental Hotel during a goodwill mission last December, Nabuli will start on the wing for Penrith feeder club Windsor in the NSW Cup decider. An incredible story made even more remarkable when you consider, before this year, he had never even played rugby league. "No, always rugby union," he grins. But this isn't just my first league grand final, it's also my first grand final ever. When I rang home this week to tell mum, she couldn't believe it. Started crying on the phone. Etonia Nabuli with Penrith and Roosters great Brad Fittler. Where I'm from in Fiji, near Sigatoka, everyone plays rugby. So they couldn't believe I would try to play league. They told me 'you're a union player, you won't do any good'. So from that moment I decided I wanted to play in a Grand Final. I knew it would be on TV and that people back home would see it. Then they would know I was progressing in the game. While his own family, who reside in Nadro, have no television set, 'Eto' says they still see the game thanks to a neighbouring cousin who receives Origins and Grand Finals via Sky. "So I'm just so excited," he told The Daily Telegraph on Tuesday, watching the Fijian schoolboy rugby side play Australia at Knox Grammar. Etonia Nabuli training in Fiji. Growing up in Fiji, I never used to own a pair of boots. Always trained barefoot. A lot of us even lifted weights that way because we didn't have shoes -- (laughs) which can be a bit dangerous when they're being dropped everywhere. Incredibly, Nabuli would still be lugging bags around the Intercontinental foyer had it not been for Fittler and Johns, who were taken by the athletic build of their porter who, said Johns, "you'd offer $1 million for if he were a racehorse." Inviting him to a training clinic later that day, the pair were so shocked by his results in testing they immediately made calls to a variety of NRL clubs, with Panthers supremo Phil Gould eventually agreeing to sign him sight unseen. And so unbelievable has the rise of Nabuli been since, Johns and Fittler re now developing a 'Footy For Fiji' program. They will fly to the island less than 24 hours after working the grand final for Channel Nine in the hope of finding a second athlete to follow in his footsteps. Not only will the legendary league pairing hold an open trial day in Sigatoka, they will also select, and coach, two teams for a match to be broadcast nationally in Fiji. From there, one player will be chosen and signed to an NRL contract, given the same chance Gould gifted 'Eto' on nothing but the advice from Fittler. "Yeah, Phil is a good bloke," Nabuli laughs. He just messages me to say Bula and see how I'm doing. I tell him everything is good and he says 'okay, okay, great, keep playing'. And that's what I do. This time next year, I want to be in the NRL.