![Enari Tuala, right, will play his 100th NRL game this week. Enari Tuala, right, will play his 100th NRL game this week.](/images/transform/v1/crop/frm/max.mckinney/b0f6edb0-e38f-4d87-bb4c-fef13aad36a2.jpg/r0_0_4483_2979_w1200_h678_fmax.jpg)
Enari Tuala has long been regarded as Mr Fix-It at the Newcastle Knights.
Subscribe now for unlimited access.
or signup to continue reading
Over the past five seasons, he's played in a variety of back-line positions.
Coach Adam O'Brien can rely upon the 25-year-old to do a job at centre or wing, no matter which side of the field he is deployed on.
But now Tuala, ahead of his 100th NRL game on Saturday, his 82nd for Newcastle, is hoping to become Mr Consistent after a run of games in one position.
After making only six appearances last season, the off-contract back has played nine matches this year, all but one of them on the wing.
"I'm feeling good. I've just got to stay consistent," Tuala said. "I'm really loving the right wing, alongside 'Gags'. I love playing with him."
Comfortably moving between the right or left flanks as required, Tuala appears to have now locked down the right-wing position.
But as Newcastle prepare for their 11th game this campaign, a clash with the Gold Coast at Magic Round in Brisbane, Tuala enters the match on a run of three appearances in the No.5 jersey.
Having lined up on the other flank plenty of times alongside Bradman Best, he is taking in as much as he can playing outside Newcastle's other centre, 277-game veteran Dane Gagai.
"He's world-class," Tuala said of Gagai.
"He's done it all, whether it's Origin or for Australia.
"He's someone I look up to and I'm happy to be playing alongside him. He is a competitor and is always turning up, week-in, week-out."
A Cairns product who joined the Knights ahead of the 2020 season, Tuala has had no trouble finding the try-line in his NRL career.
In 99 games, he has scored 40, including two for his debut club North Queensland where he made 18 NRL appearances between 2017-19.
He was Newcastle's top try-scorer in 2021 and during the COVID-shortened 2020 season, bagging 13 and 11, respectively.
Last week in Tamworth, he scored his third this season, perfectly timing a run to collect a pin-point grubber kick from Gagai.
Off-contract at the end of this campaign after signing a one-season extension last year, Tuala is hoping for more of the same over coming weeks as he looks to impress for a new contract.
"I haven't thought too much about it, I'm just trying to stay in the moment week-by-week, and try to perform every week," he said.
As for his 100th game, Tuala said it had "been a long time coming" but he was "really stoked to achieve" the milestone.