Parramatta winger Semi Radradra believes his trip home to Fiji just one week out from the beginning of the season will inspire him to bigger and better things in 2016.
February's Cyclone Winston – the strongest tropical storm to hit Fiji in recorded history – meant 23-year-old Radradra was unable to contact his family throughout the ordeal.
Despite the devastation felt throughout Fiji Radradra's swift journey home brought plenty of relief with his family unaffected by the cyclone.
"It was good to go back and see my family. They are all well and healthy," Radradra, who returned four days before the Eels' season-opener against Brisbane, told NRL.com.
"It was refreshing for me to go home for three days before the season started mainly because it was a relief.
"It's going to put me in good stead for the season ahead. It will make me play good footy I think this year because it made me very happy to see that my family were OK."
In terms of Radradra's previous starts to seasons, his performance against the Broncos was a relatively uneventful one.
"It was quiet, very quiet," Radradra admitted.
In his two other Round 1 games since debuting in 2013 he produced a hat-trick in each, with Radradra admitting the Eels' 13-point loss was "frustrating".
"Everybody was disappointed with the effort we gave last week," he said.
"We still have a lot of things to work on and hopefully we can improve this week. It's a good thing to play the Cowboys so we can get some good games against the good teams early."
Radradra also expects the club debut of Kieran Foran will pay massive dividends in growing his combination with NSW centre Michael Jennings – which the Broncos were able to shutdown at every turn last Thursday.
"Everyone will target me especially with my left edge having Michael Jennings there too. It's good to have him there but it's going to be very hard scoring tries this year," Radradra said.
"Our combination is coming along though, we're still trying to find our feet and hopefully it'll be there soon. Regardless I'm very happy for him to play alongside me."
