NRL 2022: Robert Craddock on whether Wayne Bennett can help rescue David Fifita’s career
After another failed David Fifita experiment, Robert Craddock ponders how and who can help Gold Coast’s million-dollar man discover his NRL potential.
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Is Wayne Bennett the man to sort out David Fifita’s volatile rugby league career?
Fifita likes Bennett and Bennett certainly likes him, having once sent Sam Burgess to Brisbane to offer him a million dollar deal to join Souths.
Fifita, who faces up to a month on the slideines with injury, and the Gold Coast Titans just haven’t been able to waltz together in the way $1.2 million a season player and their club simply have to to make it work.
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Blame who you like – the coach or the player – but when Fififa’s contract ends after the 2023 season it will be interesting whether Dolphins coach Bennett, who specialises in soothing troubled minds with a verbal cuddle and a simple, clear game plan, emerges as a key player.
As Fifita’s three-year deal at the Gold Coast nears its halfway point, the sight of him sitting on the bench for the first 25 minutes against Penrith while veteran Kevin Proctor made one run for two metres embodied the mysterious wastefulness of the project.
Portioning blame is not easy because the story shifts by the week. And it’s not as if Fifita has been a total failure.
Fifita scored a club record 17 tries last year but behind the gold studded highlights reel there was not the backup fibre you want from a man earning $25,000 a week.
Some experts believe Fifita is to blame because he likes to dine on his Pavlova but is not keen to munch on his greens and carrots in the small moments.
Former Kangaroo Ryan Girdler said on Triple M Fifita just doesn’t do enough of the underrated housekeeping that Penrith’s Viliame Kikau provides when he bullies wingers when they catch the ball and generally tries to stay in the action.
Fifita was reportedly rocked and stirred into action by Scott Sattler’s recent claim he was “one of their worst players.’’
But coach Justin Holbrook’s management of Fifita is also under question.
There is a theory Fifita should have never fleetingly been switched to the centres this year, particularly after his best two games of the year.
Before the season started Fifita said he wanted to be an 80-minute player but that hasn’t happened.
The only certainty is that the curse of the million dollar player has struck again.
Quite strangely, you know you’ve made it as a million dollar man in the NRL when people stop giving you that title.
No-one bothered calling Johnathan Thurston and Cameron Smith million-dollar men because they earnt the big cash so reliably their salary wasn’t a point of interest.
But when you take the big cash and fall short – as Ash Taylor and Ben Hunt (though he has grown into the deal) and Anthony Milford found out – your bank balance becomes a key point of contrast with your stats sheet.
When Fifita was wooed by Titans legend Mal Meninga for $1.2 million a year it provided an interesting contrast to Meninga’s own career and a lesson in how the pressure of a huge deal can bend a career out of shape.
Late in the 1980s Meninga was the first NRL player to land a $100,000 a year deal which was massive back page news but Big Mal simply got on with life without any dollar related pressure.
He had been playing first grade in Brisbane and Sydney for a decade and had steadily built up to it and earned every cent of it.
The deal was paid on performance not potential.
Fifita, and many others, has learned the hard way when the dollars arrive before the big deeds trouble beckons on all fronts.
INSIDE STORY OF DRAMATIC CRASH OF THE TITAN
Travis Meyn
Penrith star Nathan Cleary fears Titans rookie Toby Sexton is suffering ‘second year syndrome’ as pressure builds on coach Justin Holbrook to get the free-falling Gold Coast back on track.
The Titans must defy 15 years of club history if they are to fight back from a 2-6 start to the season and make back-to-back NRL finals appearances.
Since their foundation in 2007, the Titans have never come back from such a poor start to the year and qualified for the play-offs.
Missing out on the finals would be a failure for a club that last year finished in the top eight (with a 10-14 record) for the first time since 2016 and then declared it wanted to win two NRL premierships by 2030.
Titans culture chief Mal Meninga wanted the club to be challenging for NRL titles this year and next, but they are now fighting to stay out of the bottom four and it’s been a perfect storm that’s put the Gold Coast in this precarious position.
THE FIFITA DILEMMA
Holbrook’s handling of $3.5 million investment David Fifita - shifting him to centre last week and then the bench against Penrith - has raised eyebrows, with Fifita now facing a month on the sideline due to a knee injury.
After scoring a club record 17 tries last year, Fifita went into this season in the best shape of his career.
He lost weight, improved his fitness and enjoyed an injury-free pre-season to give himself the best chance of a big 2022 campaign.
But he has struggled to get involved in games, with Sexton’s challenges at halfback not helping Fifita inject himself into the action.
After his two best games of the season, Holbrook then shifted Fifita to centre against the Cowboys, where he was terrorised defensively by Valentine Holmes and Scott Drinkwater.
The next week, Fifita found himself on the bench at the expense of veteran Kevin Proctor, who only managed one run for 2m against the Panthers.
Holbrook justified the Fifita benching as a tactical ploy to get an explosive 60 minutes out of his most dangerous player.
But Fifita doesn’t want to be benched and it is hard to see the enigmatic player enjoying his demotion or what’s happened over the past fortnight.
BOTCHED SPINAL SURGERY
At the crux of the Titans’ plight is a misfiring spine which pales in comparison to some of the NRL’s top playmaking partnerships.
While they have splashed millions on representative forwards like Fifita, Tino Fa’asuamaleaui and Moeaki Fotuaika, the Titans are attempting to compete with a bits-n-pieces spine.
Hooker Erin Clark’s service from dummy-half is among the worst in the league and veteran utility Will Smith was thrust into five-eighth for Friday night’s 18-4 loss to Penrith to allow AJ Brimson to move into his best position at fullback.
Then there is former schoolboys sensation Sexton, whose second year in the NRL is quickly becoming a nightmare with little on-field support around him following Holbrook’s decision to release experienced campaigner Jamal Fogarty to Canberra.
Sexton, 21, has talent and a mature attitude but his development is being butchered by the pressure of being the Gold Coast’s chief with only 12 NRL games under his belt.
“It’s going to be like that at times,” said Cleary, the Panthers and NSW Origin star.
“I watched him closely when he came on the scene last year and was playing really well. Sometimes it’s like that. When you first come on the scene there’s no expectation and you can play your game.
“As you get into that second year, people start to watch you a bit more and watch video. They mark up on you harder and try to put you under pressure. Sometimes nights like this (three errors) happen.
“I think he’s a great player and needs to stick at it. They’ve got a pretty young spine and haven’t been able to keep the same spine for a long time.
“It will be a work in progress for him. It doesn’t happen overnight, it certainly didn’t happen for me.
“He’s got to keep grinding it out, working hard and learning from his mistakes.”
After developing Fogarty and making his club co-captain, Holbrook made a bold call after last season that Sexton would be his first-choice halfback for 2022.
He gave Jayden Campbell the fullback duties and shifted Brimson to five-eighth to accommodate the son of Dally M great Preston Campbell in the No. 1.
But Campbell has been overlooked for selection the past two games and faces an uncertain road back to the NRL following Brimson’s performance against the Panthers.
Holbrook lamented the Titans’ spine struggles and admitted his key players had to improve.
“Our seven-six-one after eight games have played one-and-a-half games together. That’s not ideal,” he said.
“That is obviously the area we’ve got to get right because our middles are trying so hard and our outside backs were brilliant.
“It’s those key positions. We need them to be playing better collectively. We have to because we are in a bad spot.”
LUCK OF THE DRAW
With his future at the Gold Coast secure until 2024, Holbrook faces a challenge to get the Titans’ premiership aspirations back on track following this year’s dramatic crash.
While they have started the season with only two wins - against the Warriors and Tigers - the Titans have the most favourable draw in the league and finish with a string of winnable games that could see them mount a late run to the play-offs.
But to do that they must remain in contention and can’t afford to fall even further behind the pack, especially considering top eight teams this year will likely need at least an even record to play finals due to the improved competition.
Next Saturday’s clash against the Roosters in Mackay will be challenging, but they are an opposition the Titans performed well against last year and Holbrook is confident he can turn things around.
“We’ve got to keep working hard now,” Holbrook said.
“We’re not going to treat it like we’re close. We’ve got to come in Monday and keep working hard.
“We’ve got a really good group there. We’re not getting the wins we want, we know we’ve got to get on a run and I’m confident we can do it.
“We’ve just got to make sure we turn up and continue on the way we did this week. We had a great week but didn’t get the result.”
Million dollar problem: Fifita experiments continue to backfire
The Titans’ season is hanging by a thread after David Fifita was injured as Penrith continued its unbeaten start to the year with an 18-4 win on the Gold Coast.
The Panthers overcame an early scare at Cbus Super Stadium on Friday night to register their eighth straight win of 2022 and consign the Titans to a 2-6 start – a record the Gold Coast has never come back from to play finals in their 15-year history.
Penrith trailed at half-time for the first time this season after an error-riddled 40 minutes allowed the Titans to take a 4-nil lead into the break.
But gun halfback Nathan Cleary stepped up, having a hand in all three Penrith tries to guide the Panthers home after their early lethargy.
After a drought-breaking finals appearance last year, the Titans find themselves in dire straits on the back of four straight losses.
And they could be without their most explosive player in next week’s crucial game against the Roosters in Mackay after Fifita hobbled off the field in the 64th minute with a knee injury.
FIFITA A $1 MILLION PROBLEM
After a failed shift to centre last week, Fifita came on after 25 minutes and immediately got involved, registering five runs, three tackle busts and an offload which led to the Gold Coast’s first try.
Fifita tried to get himself into the game but coach Justin Holbrook’s decision to play his most explosive player at centre last week and then bench him in favour of the fading Kevin Proctor is baffling.
He copped a knock to his knee in the first half and only managed 39 minutes before succumbing to the problem, the last thing the Titans needed.
“It’s something with his knee,” Holbrook said.
“We needed impact from him. He’s not a standard player, he can offer big impact. I’d rather his 60 minutes be full of quality, rather than try and push him to 80 for the sake of it.
“The fact he got injured and couldn’t play a part makes it even harder.
“It’s disappointing, we worked really hard to give ourselves a chance to win the game. We’re relieving pressure too easily. There is a lot to like…but not the result.
“We know we’ve got to get on a run and I’m confident we can do it.”
PANTHERS GET JOB DONE
This was Penrith’s worst performance of the season, and possibly of the past three years, but they still found a way to win.
The Titans dominated every statistical category in the first half, missing only six tackles compared to Penrith’s 26 and spending most of their time attacking the Panthers’ line.
But their try-line attack was sloppy and it took a cross-field kick to winger Greg Marzhew in the 38th minute for the Gold Coast to get on the board after numerous raids.
It was enough to give the Titans a 4-nil lead, but they crumbled just four minutes into the second half as Cleary put in a deft grubber for Izack Tago to get Penrith on the board.
From there Cleary turned the screws, crossing himself four minutes to extend Penrith’s lead and doing enough to get his team the two points.
Cleary’s class was in contrast to the struggles of rookie Titans halfback Toby Sexton, who is buckling under the pressure of first grade.
The Panthers’ performance was far from pretty but good teams get the job done.
“It was a win for our culture. We definitely weren’t at our best,” coach Ivan Cleary said.
“We take pleasure in winning...any way. It is not always pretty and you are not always going to be at your best. It was a five-day turnaround and we haven’t travelled much. It is still a young team so that was going to be a little bit of a concern, so they would have learned a bit.
“We’ve got Parramatta next week. They are going really well and we are going to have to be better.”
Cleary said winger Brian To’o and prop Moses Leota were both a chance of returning from injury next week.
CRICHTON QUIET
Penrith centre Stephen Crichton, fresh from a hat-trick against the Raiders last week, lost ground in the battle with Kotoni Staggs to snare a centre spot for the Blues. After Staggs’ masterclass display in attack and defence against Cronulla’s Siosifa Talakai the night before this was Chrichton’s chance to make a statement about his own credentials. By half-time Crichton had missed four tackles and was as listless as his teammates with the ball. He was better in the second half but Staggs holds the advantage at this stage.
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