 In the last 2 matches of the regular season, French switched with Michael Gordon to play from the wing to fullback, scoring 2 hat tricks in 2 weeks in a row in the Eels 30-18 win against the St George Illawarra Dragons and 40-18 win against the New Zealand Warriors.French quickly went on to be a try-scoring sensation in his debut season the NRL, being the club's highest try-scorer with 19 tries in 13 matches in the 2016 NRL season.On 10 February 2017, French represented the Indigenous All Stars against the World All Stars in the 2017 All Stars match, playing off the interchange bench in the 34-8 win at Hunter Stadium.