Xavier Savage always misses home.

“It doesn’t get easier. You just get mentally stronger,” the Cairns product says in a Fox League special documentary.

KULPIYAM: The Xavier Savage Story: Premiering exclusively to FOX League TONIGHT after NRL 360, follow the Canberra Raiders flyer Xavier Savage, as he experiences the highs and lows of life as an NRL athlete. It’s a story of raw emotion coming to your screens this Indigenous Round

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Now 23, Savage has cemented himself in a flying Canberra Raiders side this season.

Yet the proud Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander man has struggled with homesickness ever since he was a boarding school kid in Brisbane, in the early days of chasing his NRL dream.

He credits his mum, Erica, for keeping him on track. And now Raiders coach Ricky Stuart bears responsibility for being a major support pillar in his life.

Pondering that responsibility brings Stuart to tears in KULPIYAM. Nurturing an Indigenous kid for whom home and family are everything has brought its challenges.

“When you talk to most players today, if you say, ‘What are you playing for?’, it’s family. Where really, family has to come second. If you’re going to commit 100 per cent to your preparation, family unfortunately has to come second if you’re going to reach the heights. I know my family had to come second a lot. Unfortunately, that’s the way it has to be,” Stuart says, before becoming emotional.

“With Xavier, I need them to trust me. To trust someone else with your kid … is a big thing.”

It hasn’t always been easy. Stuart admitted after Canberra’s season-opener in Las Vegas that he’d had some “tough days” with Savage, who has sometimes struggled with the more dreary sides of being a professional footballer.

“A year ago, I’d had a gutful. Xavier wasn’t helping Xavier, he wasn’t fair to the people around him, he wasn’t fair to some of those who were very close to him. He was taking shortcuts and not doing the right things off field,” Stuart says.

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“He was fortunate he had a coach who saw the talent, but there was a lot of work to do.”

At that stage, Savage had just come back from a broken jaw, only to be brought down by more injuries.

“I finally came back from that, working so hard to get back on the field. And then I had these hamstring injuries, I had one and then I came back and did another one. I was playing pretty much ‘poor me’ and not wanting to put in the work to get back out there,” he says.

Home remains Savage’s beacon of strength. Early in his career, he revealed that he was even shipping dugong and turtle meat to Canberra from the far north, with the taste reminding him of life in Cairns and the islands.

Savage makes an emotional journey home in KULPIYAM; a title taken from his Indigenous name, which means rolling thunder. He brings with him Raiders teammates Hudson Young and Morgan Smithies, who Stuart says were hand-picked for the visit.

“It’s definitely like a big deep breath sort of feeling, being surrounded by so much love, being home is where I’m probably the happiest and the calmest,” Savage says.

A poignant moment of the documentary shows Savage sitting in conversation with his extended family and his teammates. He becomes emotional, his homesickness laid bare.

“I didn’t know if it was gonna be enough to show these boys our culture and sometimes I just feel like I’m not too connected. But you remind me that I am,” he says.

“I try not to get too caught up in the busy lifestyle me and these boys go through. That’s something I’m working on, being better with staying in touch with youse. But just know that I’m always thinking about youse and missing youse. I probably don’t talk as much because when I do, I start to miss home a lot, so I try and keep distance a bit.

“But gonna start thinking differently about things and you probably just reminded me just now, in the way you spoke. I always tell you, youse are my ‘why’ I do what I do. Youse are my strength and that’s why I’ve got it on my arm; not that I need it to remind me, but just to remind everyone else, that they know why I’m out there giving it my all.

“Now youse (Young and Smithies) know my family and away from these people, youse are my family. I’ll have your back just as much as I’ve got these fullas as well. Thanks boys, and thanks everyone.”

Watch KULPIYAM: The Xavier Savage Story tonight at 7.30pm AEST on Fox Sports and Kayo Sports