Keaon Koloamatangi has forced Uber Eats drivers in Sydney's south west to take a pay cut - but they can blame South Sydney's master coach Wayne Bennett.
The forward dropped around 10kg ahead of the 2025 season and now tips the scales between 107 and108kg - the leanest he's been since he was playing centre in the Rabbitohs' SG Ball team.
Koloamatangi, who played mostly as a middle towards the end of 2024, credited a chat with returning coach Bennett as motivation for trimming down.
"I was very overweight last year to my standards, and when I had a chat with Wayne in the off-season, he asked what I thought was the best position for me," he said.
"I felt like second row was my best position."
The one-time NSW representative left the conversation on a mission to drop weight to match it with the league's best edge forwards.
The likes of Liam Martin (103kg), Briton Nikora (94kg), Dylan Lucas (96kg) and Angus Crichton (102kg) are all significantly leaner than the 118kg at which Koloamatangi played as a middle in 2024.
"If you look at all the best ones (second-rowers), I feel I'm one of them, but if you're not fit enough, you're not going to excel into a top three or top two in that position," he said.
The first thing to go was dessert - Koloamatangi's Achilles Heel.
Koloamatangi admits delivery drivers near his home in the Canterbury-Bankstown region would be feeling a bit lighter in the hip pocket as a result of his health kick.
"I was pretty bad on desserts so I pretty much cut that out and saw how long I could go without that," he said.
"I was eating anything that was in the cupboard, but mainly Uber Eats açaí because I live in the Canterbury-Bankstown area and açaí is pretty big over there.
"I had to cut that out so Uber Eats has probably lost a bit of money now."
After only a couple of months, Koloamatangi was seeing results.
"I shredded pretty quickly. It wasn't too much of a massive difference in my diet," he said.
The 26-year-old runs out for his second game of the season against St George Illawarra on Saturday after helping Souths to a two-point defeat of the Dolphins last week.
He's still getting used to his leaner physique.
"It's a bit of a different feeling being lighter because sometimes I feel a bit less powerful, but I've been lifting well in the gym so I'm just trying to get comfortable in my own body again," he said.
"I feel a lot better with myself. I just wanted to challenge myself off the field. I'm still trying to perfect it, but I'm happy."