Kiwi-NRL mana doesn't get much more emphatic than Hornby junior Fa'amanu Brown back playing footy with Wests Tigers after a long injury break. Brown was first scouted by Sharks and quickly progressed through their ranks to make his Kiwi-NRL debut in 2014, playing three seasons with Sharks before moving to Bulldogs for two more seasons.

Then came a niggly injury battle that saw Brown miss a few years of footy and his long route back to NRL footy stretched out to Featherstone Rovers in England's second tier. Featherstone deserve aroha here as New Plymouth's Makahesi Makatoa had a stint with Featherstone before settling into the Eels' top-17 and Brown's stint with Featherstone has had a similar impact to his career.

Brown's first stop back in Australia was with North Sydney Bears which put him in the wider Roosters system but Brown didn't appear to be contracted to the Roosters squad. Brown played seven games of NSW Cup with North Sydney and Aotearoa Kiwis coach Michael Maguire then shuffled Brown into the Tigers mixer, with Brown making a mid-week shift from North Sydney to Western Suburbs Magpies.

Since that move, the stars aligned for Brown's quick passage back into NRL footy. Injuries to hooking options ahead of Brown saw him grab a spot on the bench for Tigers in their round 11 win over Bulldogs. Brown has now played three consecutive games for Tigers and has gone from 29 minutes off the bench in round 15, to starting the last two games with 46mins vs Warriors then 62mins vs Eels this weekend.

Brown has started ahead of Jacob Liddle in the past two rounds which could suggest a shift under coach Brett Kimmorley. Liddle was 18th-man against Warriors as Luke Brooks slid into hooker to give Brown a rest and Adam Doueihi came off the bench to play in the halves. Against Eels, Liddle came off the bench for 18mins around half-time and this coincided with Eels scoring most of their tries.

Not that Brown is a Tigers saviour, but Brown has clearly made an impression at Tigers. Maguire brought Brown in and now Kimmorley is starting Brown at hooker with his workload increasing every game he plays. Brown has made 97 tackles @ 94.2 percent efficiency in his five games, missing just 6 tackles. While Brown is yet to flex his kicking game (he was a half earlier in his career) out of dummy half, Brown has scored 3 tries already and this is the most tries Brown has scored in a season.

Brown's 3 tries is the same amount that he scored in 24 games while with Sharks and there were positive signs in Brown's NSW Cup mahi at Bears and Magpies. Brown scored a try in his seven games for Bears while going 6-1 and his two games for Magpies saw Brown grab a try and try-assist. None of that forecasted how quickly Brown would impact Tigers footy though.

Tigers continue to be an intriguing Kiwi-NRL pocket as they still have all the Kiwi-NRL talent that Maguire ushered in, but now Maguire has departed and Tigers are still struggling for wins. Much of this depends on who the new Tigers coach is and Brown is well poised to keep improving, as well as commanding further opportunities.

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