Fonua-Blake quietly removed himself from the Warriors dressing room as they celebrated an upset win over Penrith, one of the gutsiest in their history considering the injuries they sustained before and during the Magic Round clash.

But the reigning Dally M prop of the year was quietly filthy. His seven runs for 62 metres with a couple of errors against the Panthers made for his smallest statistical impact on a game since his first two seasons in the NRL.

“So instead of hanging around the team and bringing the team’s mood down, my thinking was I’ll go and sit on the bus, so I’m not hanging around like a bad smell,” Fonua-Blake said.

“I wasn’t dirty on my teammates; I was dirty on myself and how I’d played. I didn’t lead in that game and didn’t lead my team. It was the wrong decision at the time and I put my hand up for it, that’s all I can do. I took my one-week stand down for it. I think I came back into the team playing well and that was a point I wanted to make from it.”

Fonua-Blake returned to the Warriors line-up after a week out and finished 2024 as a Dally M prop again.

He is grateful to the Kiwi club for understanding his request to move back to Sydney to be closer to his parents.

Now 29, Fonua-Blake has ex-Warriors coach Nathan Brown to thank for “helping me grow up off the field”. Current Warriors coach Andrew Webster then challenged him to lift his effort areas, such as support and decoy plays, and Fonua-Blake became one of the game’s truly elite props in the process.

Cronulla’s forwards have been constantly moving around the ball since Fitzgibbon took charge three years ago. And looking at his new coach, Fonua-Blake can spot the same “hard marker” he sees in himself.

“I know what I can do in this game,” he said.

“And when I don’t do that, I’m filthy. I feel like I’m letting myself down, letting my team down and letting my family down when I go out and I don’t perform to my best.

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“Some days when it’s like that, it’s a failure for me. It might be a pass in someone else’s books, but not for me. And if I’m not hard on myself then, who’s going to be?

“I can see that in Fitz, too. Accountability is massive for him, and if your coach is that way, then your team ends up playing that way, too. There’s a lot of talent here at the Sharks and I think I’m joining one of the strongest forward packs in the NRL.

“So I want to leave a legacy and perform at my best. If I’m not, that’s when I’m not happy.”