David Fifita Titans contract: Brisbane Broncos star offered Gold Coast mega deal
Broncos boss Paul White says the club will fight tooth and nail to keep David Fifita after the Titans offered the young superstar the richest deal in their history.
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Brisbane boss Paul White has vowed to fight tooth-and-nail to keep David Fifita at the Broncos as a big-money bidding war breaks out with the Titans over the Queensland Origin star.
The Broncos-Titans derby on Saturday night at Suncorp Stadium has taken on an explosive edge with Gold Coast launching a $5 million poaching raid for one of Brisbane’s best back-row talents in 20 years.
The game’s hottest forward prospect, Fifita remains off-contract at season’s end and stands to lose $1.5 million over the next five years if he shuns the Titans’ mega offer and stays loyal to the Broncos.
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The Broncos concede they cannot afford to match the Titans’ $1 million-a-season offer for Fifita, but White believes money will not be the Maroons hulk’s only consideration when he sits down to finalise his future.
“We are confident of keeping him, I still maintain that,” White said.
“David is a wonderful young man and we have a terrific relationship with David and his mother Gwen.
“I’ve had them over to my place for dinner and I have seen their passion for the Broncos.
“Recruitment is not just a matter of who has the biggest cheque. If it was, we would lose the majority of our players.
“There are clubs who are prepared to offer more for Dave. The key is to retain them and you want to retain them all. Sometimes you can’t. Ben Hunt is a great example of that. We had him since he was 12 and sometimes you get a knockout blow. We couldn’t compete with the Dragons’ offer (in 2017) and there was nothing we could do.
“There is no doubt Dave is a special kid. The try he scored against the Cowboys in round one (a 70m solo try to win the game), that’s the sort of stuff that fills stadiums. Not many players have his athleticism.
“There is an environment inside our club that supports young players. Dave is not just an athlete, we care for him as a person and better people make for better players.
“That’s our responsibility as well.”
The Roosters have been mooted as a fresh contender for Fifita, but the 20-year-old has no interest in moving to Sydney, leaving the Titans as the only threat to the Broncos.
Despite the uncertainty, Fifita is in no rush to make a decision. His deal with the Broncos expires on October 31 and it will be some months before he makes a final call.
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The Broncos are also aware of a management issue with Fifita, whose arrangement with player agent Steve Deacon expires in December.
Brisbane board member Darren Lockyer, part of the club’s recruitment-and-retention committee, says the Broncos have salary-cap challenges.
“David Fifita has X-factor so we’re keen to do everything we can to keep Dave,” Lockyer said.
“The focus right now is to keep our current squad together and the priority is re-signing Dave Fifita.
“We are still evaluating some of the players on our roster and a lot will depend on the next 12 months. There is not a lot of freedom in the cap, we have Jack Bird and Anthony Milford on good deals and we have to look to re-sign Dave.
“There’s a management issue with Dave but there’s also a lot more salary-cap compliance these days.
“We are still talking to him and he has been pretty good about it, he understands he has to wait a bit longer before he has some clarity around what we can offer him.”
DECADE DEAL: TITANIC CONTRACT TO MAKE FIFITA A ‘LIFER’
–Peter Badel, Travis Meyn
Brisbane are under siege to retain David Fifita with Titans culture chief Mal Meninga tabling a club-record $5 million contract and ready to up the ante with a stunning lifetime deal for the Broncos superstar.
News Corp can reveal the Titans have put together a $1 million-a-season, five-year package – the richest deal in their history – as Meninga launches one final attempt to poach Fifita from Red Hill.
But the Titans are prepared to go even harder to make Fifita an offer he cannot refuse, with Meninga open to discussing a Jason Taumalolo-style, lifetime deal that would deliver the Queensland Origin star to the Gold Coast for 10 years.
Revelations of Meninga’s relentless pursuit of Fifita will have Brisbane coach Anthony Seibold on tenterhooks in a spicy preamble to Saturday night’s Broncos-Titans derby at Suncorp Stadium.
Brisbane recruitment-and-retention chiefs have privately conceded they cannot beat the Titans in a bidding war for Fifita and now Meninga is going for the jugular to pull off the biggest signing in Gold Coast’s history.
It can be revealed Meninga has had a series of private negotiations with the off-contract Fifita, most recently last month while the 20-year-old was recovering from knee surgery.
Fifita’s re-signing with Brisbane for 2021 was considered a fait accompli, but the Broncos’ form crisis, coupled with savage criticism of Seibold, has left the matchwinning forward concerned at the club’s direction.
The Broncos, due to salary-cap constraints, cannot afford more than $700,000 a season.
That means Fifita stands to sacrifice a staggering $1.5 million over a five-year period if he rejects the Titans’ bid and stays loyal to the Broncos.
In February, the Titans made a preliminary move for Fifita, discussing a four-year deal worth $3.2 million.
But with the Broncos desperately juggling salary-cap numbers, Meninga is turning up the heat, revisiting Fifita armed with a mega deal to make the Brisbane forward the Titans’ first $1 million forward.
Former Broncos skipper Gorden Tallis, now a Titans ambassador, urged Fifita to consider quitting Brisbane to help turn the Gold Coast into an NRL force.
“It would be a great move for Fifita,” Tallis said.
“When you get a young kid that is so good it can be a game-changer for your club because everyone comes along with it.
“It can take only one signing to change things.
“Glenn Lazarus at the Melbourne Storm set the culture. Greg Inglis went to South Sydney.
“Sam Burgess went to a struggling South Sydney at a young age and ended up winning a premiership.
“Johnathan Thurston was the same at the Cowboys. Ask him which grand final win means more to him – playing in a star-studded Bulldogs team (2004) or getting his own team across the line (2015) at the Cowboys.
“Dave Fifita has to think about how he wants to be challenged and remembered.”
While the Titans have tabled five years, Meninga will discuss a longer-term deal if Fifita wants that.
The Cowboys and Manly respectively signed Taumalolo and Daly Cherry-Evans to lifetime contracts and Meninga rates Fifita so highly that option is on the table.