Sharks enforcer Andrew Fifita reveals his first career suspension “rattled” him
NRL enforcer Andrew Fifita regularly smashes his opponents with big hits, but this incident left the big man questioning the way he plays the game.
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Andrew Fifita felt he was left with no choice — continue with his enforcer ways or curb his aggression and stay on the park longer.
When Fifita was hit with the first suspension of his career in round 14 last year, followed by another one soon after, it left the tough front-rower rattled — fearing his aggression could cost him more stints on the sideline.
Fifita was distressed by the forced time off.
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“I’m an aggressive player,” Fiftia said. “It’s the way I play. That’s how you need to take me and the way I need to play to play my best footy.”
Fifita had never been suspended before the June 13 incident against the Canberra Raiders last season. The three-game ban rubbed him out of Tonga’s mid-season Test defeat to New Zealand and he was again slapped with a one-game suspension just two games after getting back on the field.
“I was frustrated,” Fifita said. “Some boys have been suspended so many times and this was my first one.
“I was quite rattled. I was scared to play a bit aggressive. I didn’t want to overplay it because I felt like I had already let the team down (with the Raiders nailing the Sharks 22-20).
“I missed playing for my country. It’s hard because at the start of the year I thought I started really well. Come towards the end of the year, it was just a bit frustrating. I was too on and off.
“Being suspended wasn’t the best. It took its toll and we lost both games against two teams we should’ve won against.”
A nagging leg injury also plagued Fifita last season. He lasted just seven minutes in one match before returning the next week.
“It wasn’t my hamstring,” Fifita said ahead of the Sharks’ season opener against South Sydney next Saturday.
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“It was the fascia in between the hamstring. I went into one game and a minute later I was cramping. I was bleeding on the fascia.
“The next week I came back to play — and I didn’t understand it.
“I thought I did a grade-three hamstring. They said it was just bleeding. The medical staff told me it’s a weird one but ‘you’re lucky’.”
Fifita, who has been struggling with an ongoing knee during the pre-season, had a frank end-of-season review with coach John Morris. He was brutal in his own self-assessment of his season.
“I said, ‘Everyone goes through these years during their careers’,” Fifita said. “I look back at 2014. I had a downer of a year and then came back and played the best I have played in my career.
“I said I knew it was frustrating. I missed a game through injury and three (club) games through suspension. It’s such a negative thing to be out when you’re sweet to play.”
Originally published as Sharks enforcer Andrew Fifita reveals his first career suspension “rattled” him
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