Tino Fa’asuamaleaui isn’t hitting the free agency market just yet, with the Gold Coast captain happy to hear new coach Josh Hannay’s sale pitch on the future of the club before he makes any formal decisions.
The Titans skipper is fast approaching the first of his two ‘get out’ clauses in his 10-year, $12 million deal, and is free to speak to rival NRL clubs from November 1 should he want to leave in 2027.
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The general sentiment has been that the star Queensland forward was going to speak to other clubs — St George Illawarra, Perth, and Melbourne currently lead the way there — before deciding whether he wanted to leave, but the whole saga may never get to that stage if Fa’asuamaleaui likes what he hears from the club’s incoming top boss after Christmas.
Fa’asuamaleaui will be in the U.K. contesting the Ashes with Australia before then, but once he’s back on home soil after a break, he and Hannay will sit down and speak about how they could orchestrate a Gold Coast revival together.
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We know what Hannay will pitch, too: Last month, the former Queensland State of Origin assistant said, “It’s not about making guarantees or promises; ultimately, everyone at the club wants to see actions. [I’ll be] sitting down with Tino and giving him a picture of the environment we will create and the football program we are going to put in place.”
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Gold Coast football boss Scott Sattler, who just got started, says the club’s confident they’ll keep Tino. “I’d like to think we can keep him,” he said. “But, it has to be based on our vision… Tino knows where we want to take the club.”
He also added it would be a big blow to lose a captain right at the start of a ‘new era.’
