A fresh start at the Sydney Roosters has done Jaxson Paulo a world of good but the youngster is urging the NRL to keep coming down hard on those who target players with online abuse.
While contracted at South Sydney last season, Paulo received death threats following a bad individual performance in the Rabbitohs' round-23 loss to Penrith.
Paulo went on to play just one more game for the Rabbitohs who opted not to offer him a contract beyond 2022, but landed on his feet with a deal at their cross-town rivals.
With the spectre of online comments still fresh in his mind, Paulo's headspace was below par heading into the pre-season.
"I was a little bit all over from last year, coming through last year with all the struggles and that," he said.
"Then coming here and Trent (Robinson, Roosters coach) was real big on me just developing and being the player that he knows that I am.
"I've felt like it's been home ever since I walked in for the first day."
Paulo spent time in reserve grade in his last year at Souths but is yet to miss a game for the Roosters, scoring four tries in three appearances.
Bouncing back to his best meant taking stock and reaching out to those around him.
"The biggest thing was (finding out) where my true support crew was, my family and a couple of the boys and that," Paulo said.
"(The family) were just worried about me more than anything. I sat there and spoke to them about it and just said, 'Look, it's a game. Stuff happens. I'll come back bigger and better'.
"Everyone has bad days at work, everyone has good days at work. The next day, you start again and repeat."
Robinson said Paulo's latest game, the win against Souths, exemplified his resilience.
"He has a try scored against him in the first five minutes or 10 minutes there," Robinson said.
"And then he nailed his role, he came back and became triumphant at the end in the way that he played.
"I feel like that's a snapshot of the work that he's done and where he's got to as a player."
It was only last weekend that another NRL player, North Queensland's Kyle Feldt, was targeted with online abuse.
On Sunday, NRL CEO Andrew Abdo said the league's integrity unit would work with the police and the federal government's eSafety Commissioner to bring those responsible to justice.
Paulo backed strong action against offenders while stressing the need to support victims.
"I don't know how it's going to get solved because you don't really know with fake accounts," he said.
"But process by process, it's maybe just protecting the player and seeing how he's going.
"Our welfare teams and that do well, checking up on you and stuff like that, coaches do well checking up on you. At the moment, it's just trying to keep it out of sight, out of mind."
