A third party speaking for David Fifita recently met with South Sydney to scope out if Wayne Bennett and the Rabbitohs would want to sign the out-of-favour Gold Coast Titans superstar from as soon as next season.
Fifita, who is actually still just 25, can’t formally negotiate with rival clubs until the November 1 free agency date rolls around and has one year remaining on his rich Gold Coast playing contract.
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That means any conversations with other NRL clubs cannot be conducted by anyone directly representing him, but many players use a sounding board like this to check their options before the window opens. The Sporting Base has today confirmed that he has not yet been given early permission from anyone on the Gold Coast to talk with rival clubs.
Souths also did the right thing in messaging the Titans to make sure they knew. As flagged, they did not.
There’s technically nothing that’s been done wrong, though, leaving the Rabbitohs to make a call on the signing.
Early feelings in Redfern is that Fifita would be an interesting project, but without a guarantee he’d join – he’s already backflipped on joining two other clubs in recent years – they don’t want to do anything more officially before the end of the year.
There’s also no guarantee that the Titans would want to let Fifita leave a year early, like the third party suggested; Gold Coast brass has previously been very clear that they want to use Fifita for as long as they have him. That would have been the plan under Des Hasler this year, too, but Fifita was felled by an ankle injury that has severely hampered his season.
Should the Titans offer Fifita an extension on his current deal, they’ll be lowballing a lot cheaper than the $1 million they’ve been paying him since he joined from the Brisbane Broncos back in 2020. Sentiments at the club say he’s worth as much as $400,000 less than that.
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And that’s likely why Fifita’s agent has had a third party ring around the league, with $600K a season a huge overall haircut.
Some clubs would happily pay closer to $700K to $800K to try and get the best out of Fifita.
It also wouldn’t be surprising if other clubs had already been contacted and not had those details leak.
One club that’s unlikely to go after him again is the Roosters: Fifita backflipped on a four-year, $3.3M deal he’d already signed in May last year to instead activate a two-year Gold Coast extension. Trent Robinson is still unhappy at that rejection.
One option that may still carry big coin for the hit-or-miss superstar is the Perth Bears expansion team, though they are currently chasing Cameron Munster and Fifita’s teammate Tino Fa’asuamaleaui as their marquee signings.
