Around 150 friends and family members attended CommBank Stadium on Friday night to witness Eels winger Papalii writing the first chapter of his NRL story.
The 20-year-old Canterbury junior starred in the Eels' 30-10 upset defeat of Manly after coming on for the concussed Will Penisini less than 90 seconds into the game.
Playing on the right, Papalii collected a skidding Dean Hawkins kick and set up a try finding Jordan Samrani on his outside, before gathering a looping Hawkins pass for a four-pointer of his own.
Papalii's debut was fitting reward for patience; he'd been Jason Ryles' replacement player in all but one of Parramatta's games since round two.
"I've always dreamed about this, watching it as the 18th man, experiencing the boys playing, it's all I ever wanted to do," Papalii said at fulltime.
After biding his time, Papalii became emotional when Ryles told him on Monday that he would be making his first NRL appearance on Friday night.
"He just told me straight, 'You'll be debuting this week', and in my mind I was like, 'Are you joking?'" Papalii said.
"I was about to cry, I try to hold my tears, but when he said it, it was a relief. I didn't expect it. I didn't expect it this week."
For those who couldn't be there in person, Papalii's mother Margaret will make her way to the post office on Monday and post some 90 Papalii T-shirts and jumpers.
Some will end up with loved ones as far and wide as New Zealand, Indonesia, Hawaii and the US mainland.
"We got made 200 in total, not including the T-shirts that people ordered from overseas, so there's a backlog batch that we're going to send over on Monday," Margaret said.
For Papalii, sharing his debut with his mother and father was the highlight of a very special evening.
"That's all I wanted to do, is give back to them, my dad and mum, and all the sacrifices they've given me throughout my life," Papalii said.
"All the trainings, all the drives, even they would take off work to take me (to footy), and I just wanted to give back and make them proud."
13°C