Brandon Smith to Titans: Fa’asuamaleaui says hooker ‘changing his mind every day’

Tino Fa’asuamaleaui said his former Melbourne roommate Brandon Smith is “changing his mind” daily about his NRL future amid reports the hooker has committed to the Roosters.

TITANS lock Tino Fa’asuamaleaui said his former Melbourne roommate Brandon Smith is “changing his mind” daily about his NRL future amid reports the hooker has committed to the Sydney Roosters.

Smith has confirmed to the Storm that 2022 will be his final year in Melbourne but has not announced publicly which club he will join from 2023.

Multiple reports suggest that Smith has agreed to terms with the Roosters, following a controversial podcast appearance in which the 25-year-old pledged he would love to win a premiership in the tricolour’s jersey.

Until Fa’asuamaleaui hears that from Smith or the Roosters he is not buying it.

“Has he signed it officially?” the Titan teased.

“It’s hard to believe what’s happening. He’s changing his mind every day and he’s got some things to weigh up for him and his family.

“It’s the same situation as me, he’ll sit down and talk to his family and then once the official news comes out that’s when I’ll send him a message and say ‘congrats, bro.’”

Fa’asuamaleaui can empathise with the public nature of Smith’s free agency, which has transformed into the NRL’s biggest off-season’s story.

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Fa’asuamaleaui signed his $3.3 million, four-year extension with the Titans in November under an intense media spotlight of his own as the Dolphins entered a bidding war for his future.

“You don’t think it (the contract decision) is massive then when you sit down you realise how big it is and how much it plays on your mind,” he said.

“It’s really stressful and I’m glad mine is done.

“You can only imagine what Brandon has been going through and what he’s been reading.”

For their part, the Titans recruitment and retention committee has put a line through Smith as a potential recruit.

“We get on with our job,” chief executive Steve Mitchell said in the days after Smith’s podcast appearance.

“We know what the composition of our squad looks like through to 2025 ... so we’re very excited about the squad that we’ve currently got.”

Inside Smith’s meeting with the Titans

Off-contract Melbourne Storm hooker Brandon Smith and members of his family met with Gold Coast Titans higher-ups for the first time in an unofficial meeting on Tuesday.

No deal has been signed, team and management sources confirmed, despite speculation spurred on by the emergence of a photograph showing Smith shaking hands with team football manager Anthony Laffranchi on Tuesday morning.

Smith and his mother Tirohia met with head coach Justin Holbrook, recruitment chief Ezra Howe and Laffranchi to tour the team’s facilities.

The Titans made Smith the first offer of their 2023 recruitment campaign on November 1 and interest can now be confirmed as reciprocal.

Laffranchi told News Smith was simply visiting the Gold Coast with his mum when they dropped by Titans HQ at Parkwood.

Smith’s manager Stan Martin was not present at the meeting due to international border restrictions and played down the meeting as a meet and greet and tour of the facilities with no strings attached.

Titans players were unaware Smith had visited Parkwood when contacted.

Smith was in Townsville for the launch of the NRL’s free agency period on November 1, where it is believed the hooker met with his former Cowboys U20s coach Todd Payten, who is now the club’s head coach.

Smith’s meeting with the Titans comes 24 hours after swimwear brand Budgy Smugglers announced a two-year sponsorship agreement with the popular player.

A new range of cheese-inspired merchandise, inspired by Smith’s ‘block of cheese’ nickname and ‘hecticcheese’ instagram handle hit the market on Monday evening.

Three QLD clubs officially enter race for Brandon Smith

THE Gold Coast Titans have struck first in the race for Brandon Smith by making the Kiwi international his first offer of the NRL’s negotiation period.

At least three Queensland clubs officially joined the hunt on the opening day of free agency negotiations, with the Dolphins and Cowboys also submitting offers for the Dally M hooker of the year from 2023 onwards.

The Bulletin can reveal Smith’s management had received four offers by close of business Monday but expected a fifth in the coming days from a club they expect to be a major player in the bidding war.

The Storm’s last offer to Smith was in excess of $800,000 and, as his incumbent employer, they will expect an opportunity to match or outbid offers received on the open market.

The departures of Ash Taylor and Tyrone Peachey this off-season have freed up at least $1.3m in salary cap room for the Titans to make their pitch for Smith as competitive as possible.

Smith’s manager Stan Martin, of Sport Vision Management in New Zealand, said it was unlikely any agreement would be reached soon.

“The Titans were the first team to reach out this morning, and the Dolphins weren’t far behind,” Martin confirmed.

“We’ve spoken to four teams I thought would be interested, which is all of them except the one I’m after.

“Most clubs have been aware for quite a while (Smith) was going to market today so most have made a decision on whether they want to go with Brandon or not.

“We’re not expecting anyone out of the woodwork that wasn’t originally interested from this point.”

Smith has been spotted holidaying in Townsville, his first home in Australia, having left New Zealand to sign with the Cowboys aged 14.

His presence in Townsville will not have gone unnoticed by the Cowboys or their head coach Todd Payten, whose relationship with Smith stretches back to the club’s under-20s program in 2015.

Martin said Smith’s visit was for pleasure, not business, but suggested it would be ­efficient to meet with Payten to discuss the club’s offer before returning home to Melbourne.

Prospective Titans captain Tino Fa’asuamaleaui called for the club to place its faith in Smith last week after the Storm rake was embroiled in an alleged cocaine scandal on the eve of the Dally M Awards night.

“That’s not the way Brandon is,” declared Fa’asuamaleaui, a former housemate of Smith’s in Melbourne before joining the Titans.

“I have faith if he came here we wouldn’t have any off-field drama. No way.

“If he did come here or any other club, his reason is to win premierships and be a starting hooker.

“If we happen to get him one day it would be pretty amazing.”

Titans chief executive Steve Mitchell said the club would review Smith’s pattern of behaviour before committing to any offer.

By making their move so quickly, the Titans have shown Smith has passed their test.

Inside Titans’ players secret pitch to woo Brandon Smith

TINO Fa’asuamaleaui has promised Brandon Smith’s off-field mistakes will not follow him to the Gold Coast should the Titans win the race for the off-contract Dally M hooker of the year.

Smith was fined $50,000 and suspended for one match after leaked video footage showed the Kiwi international partying with Storm teammates in a hotel room with an unidentified white powder after this year’s grand final.

Melbourne’s initial offer to retain Smith was more than $800,000 a season, so it will take even more to coax the 25-year-old away from Craig Bellamy and the Storm.

Fa’asuamaleaui said that Smith was worth the risk to secure a premiership-­calibre No.9 and complete the Titans’ spine from 2023.

They have been close friends since Fa’asuamaleaui first moved to Melbourne aged 17, when he slept under Smith’s roof.

“He’s like a brother to me,” Fa’asuamaleaui said.

“I haven’t looked too much into it (the incident) but that’s not the way Brandon is.

“I have faith if he came here we wouldn’t have any off-field drama. No way.

“It might have been in the past when boys come up here (to Gold Coast) and run amok but we’ve got a strong culture that we’re building here where the boys know not to get out of line.

“If he did ever want to come here or any other club, his reason is to win pre­mierships and be a starting hooker.

“If we happen to get him one day, it would be pretty amazing.”

Titans chief executive Steve Mitchell said the club would make a decision on whether Smith’s actions were an isolated incident or part of a broader pattern of behaviour at a monthly recruitment and retention committee meeting.

The Titans are keeping whatever conclusion they reached close to their chest, only days away from the launch of the NRL’s negotiation period on November 1.

Mitchell has said previously that the Titans’ recruitment strategy was based around bringing in high-character players who would make the community proud.

“Your behaviour and the way you perform on the field will engender that,” he said.

“That also has an obligation on how you act as a whole off the field, with your pushback in the community and the way you behave.”

Smith was sacked by the Cowboys in 2014 after being arrested for pushing a police officer at a Townsville house party, aged 16, only to re-sign with the club six months later.

Until September that had been Smith’s only off-field controversy.

In 2016, he was named the NRL’s under-20s hooker of the year and earned a place in the Junior Kiwis representative team under current Titans recruitment manager and then New Zealand assistant coach Ezra Howe.

Their paths crossed again in 2018 when Howe was again on the coaching staff as Smith made his senior international debut for New Zealand.

Fa’asuamaleaui and fellow marquee recruit David Fifita have run their own tag-team recruitment campaign to convince Smith to join the burgeoning premiership nucleus on the Gold Coast.

Fifita used his first press conference on the Gold Coast in 2019 to fan the flames, labelling Smith the NRL player he most wanted to join him at the Titans.

“Me and David have always made jokes to Brandon that we’ll hopefully have him here one day, like ‘I can’t wait to see you at our new house at the Gold Coast’,” Fa’asuamaleaui said.

“He’s such a good player and a character of the game. It would be exciting for him to come here and hopefully we can build some combinations between him and the other boys.

“We can’t really say too much when he’s not here but it would be special one day if he is.”

How Raiders fullback helped Titans win race for Jack Wighton clone

THE Titans have beaten off interest from the Roosters, Bulldogs and Warriors to sign an emerging schoolboy sensation from New Zealand to a three-year deal with the unlikely help of a Canberra Raiders superstar.

Warriors Under-15s captain Amarni Wetini-Ngaropo became one of the youngest First XV rugby union debutants in Auckland Grammar School’s 153-year history earlier this year.

The school has produced more than 50 All Blacks since 1868 but the lure of the NRL has convinced the five-eighth to pursue his rugby league career with the Titans.

The teenager caught the attention of Kiwis fullback Charnze Nicoll-Klokstad last month, who shared Wetini-Ngaropo’s 2021 highlights reel with his 65,000 Instagram followers.

Among them was former Raiders staffer turned Titans recruitment manager Ezra Howe, already a fan from Wetini-Ngaporo’s exploits at the New Zealand Maori tournament and deep into long-term succession planning for life after Ash Taylor.

FULL HIGHLIGHTS FOR 2021

Howe won the race for Wetini-Ngaporo’s signature with a sales pitch centred around Queensland’s strong Covid-19 track record and the reputation of Gold Coast schools for developing footballers.

The 15-year-old will move to the Coast with his family where he will follow in Benji Marshall’s footsteps to Keebra Park for his final three years of secondary school.

Howe said athletic comparisons to Jack Wighton of Canberra and Josh Schuster of Manly were obvious.

“He’s going to be that sort of player,” Howe said.

“With the way the game is going with ruck speed, those instinctive players are where it’s going.

“He can play eyes-up football, he has the ability to beat the first man, has really good footwork and a good support network at home.

“We do a lot of research and he ticked a lot of boxes.”

Manager Dixon McIvor predicted the 15-year-old would make an immediate splash on the schoolboy rugby league scene in Queensland.

“I reckon he’s going to be a real name to look out for over there,” he said.

“Knowing Amarni, he’s going to absorb everything they throw at him all the way through.”

Wetini-Ngaporo will also play for Burleigh in the Cyril Connell Cup in 2022.

How Holbrook error created Titans field goal nightmare

THE non-selection of Ash Taylor came back to haunt the Titans on Thursday evening when a nightmare scenario came to pass.

With scores tied at 14-all and little under two minutes remaining the Titans needed to convert a high-pressure field goal to keep their finals dream alive.

There was just one problem.

Only one player on the entire Titans roster had ever successfully kicked a field goal at NRL level.

His name is Ash Taylor, and Holbrook had axed him just two days prior.

In the end the Titans make-or-break shot wound up in the hands of Patrick Herbert, 42 metres back from the right post.

Herbert had not kicked a field goal in match conditions since 2016 with the Dragons Under-20s.

Distance was not the issue but the shot was never on target, missing by about five metres to the right.

“Patty backs himself a lot so he was always confident in it,” Holbrook said.

“I don’t know why we had to throw it 20 metres backwards for it. They are the things we have to get better at and that’s why we didn’t win.”

Hindsight is 20/20 but dropping his only player with field goal experience in what amounted to an elimination final ultimately proved a mistake.

OUT-OF-FAVOUR TITAN MAKES CALL ON 2022

GOLD Coast forward Herman Ese’ese will play on for the Titans in 2022 after informing club management he would take up the one-year player option clause in his contract.

The 26-year-old veteran of 96 NRL games has featured in just three matches since joining the Titans from the Knights this season on a two-year deal in the vicinity of $400,000 per season.

‘I DON’T SEE HIM AHEAD OF THE OTHERS’

Head coach Justin Holbrook challenged the out-of-favour middle to fight for his place in the team.

“He’s been here, he’s been training. I just don’t see him ahead of the others,” Holbrook said.

“You look at Moe (Fotuaika), Tino (Fa’asuamaleaui), Jarrod Wallace as our starting forwards and they’re fantastic.

“Then Sam Lisone has been one of our best off the bench and Jimmy Jolliffe has been consistent all year.

“It’s just a matter of a pecking order. We’re lucky to have all our middles playing really well at the minute. He’s just not ahead of the others.”

TUMBLING DOWN THE PECKING ORDER

Ese’ese has not been sighted on the paddock for the Titans since receiving a three-game suspension for a brain-snap clothesline tackle against Penrith in Round 10.

Since then Sam McIntyre and off-contract Jai Whitbread have both been preferred ahead of Ese’ese on the Titans bench.

In a telling sign of how far the seven-test Kiwi international has slipped down Holbrook’s pecking order, the Titans allowed Whitbread to join Super League cellar-dwellers Leigh Centurions this week without making an offer.

“It’s just up to Herman now to try and get his opportunity to get ahead of the other guys,” Holbrook said.

“If he does he can stay there but at the minute I see the others a bit ahead of him.”

Ese’ese said he was happy to stay and keep working hard to get back into the team.

He said he believed in Holbrook, the club and the direction the team is heading.

Claiming a spot in the matchday 17 will be no easier in 2022 with Sydney Roosters hardman Isaac Liu already signed on to fill Whitbread’s roster position.

Titans Middle Forward Pecking Order

1. Tino Fa’suamaleaui

2. Moeaki Fotuaika

3. Jarrod Wallace

4. Sam Lisone

5. Jaimin Jolliffe

6. Sam McIntyre

7. Jai Whitbread

8. Herman Ese’ese

9. Darius Farmer

10. Tristan Powell (Dev)

TITANS SIGN ON FOR TAYLOR EXTENSION

GOLD Coast Titans players Jarrod Wallace and Erin Clark have added their support to a fan-made Change.org petition imploring the club to re-sign mercurial playmaker Ash Taylor to a contract extension.

Titans fan James Cattermole, 23, of Gatton, launched the petition hours after Taylor’s maestro performance against the Bulldogs helped move the Titans into the top eight with five regular-season games to go.

The movement has gathered more than 200 signatures in Titans social media fan groups and has now caught the attention of Taylor’s teammates.

WHAT THEY SAID

Wallace said he would “absolutely” be adding his name to the petition, with Taylor’s defensive application and leadership blossoming alongside rookie half Toby Sexton in recent weeks.

“I think Ash has done fantastic in what he’s done,” the veteran prop said.

“To get back to where he is, after the struggles he’s had, has showed the type of bloke he is.

“He’s working well with (coach) Justin (Holbrook), his confidence is coming back and he’s showing what he can do.

“His kicking game is fantastic, he’s setting up tries, he’s running and I think everyone has noticed his defence has been fantastic.

“It’s fantastic we have the opportunity to keep him here and I hope I can keep playing with him.”

WILL YOU SIGN THE PETITION? -> https://www.change.org/p/nrl-re-sign-ash-taylor

Hooker Clark felt the same way.

“I’d love to keep Ash around,” he said.

“He’s such a talent and it just shows in the last couple of weeks he’s really building his game and confidence.

“I can only focus on doing my job and leave that (extension discussion) to whoever has to do it but I’d love to have him around.”

‘COULDN’T MEET A BETTER BLOKE’

The petition’s founder said Taylor’s contributions away from the football field, with the Titans’ Indigenous programs and the Gold Coast University Hospital Foundation, inspired him to register the petition as much as the halfback’s improving form.

“Obviously he’s got to live up to his price tag but I’ve followed him all the way through and I think you couldn’t meet a better bloke,” Cattermole said.

“Ninety per cent of Titans fans absolutely love him.

“He’s always the last one to come off the field after meeting the fans.”

Cattermole hoped his petition would reach the desk of Titans culture chief Mal Meninga to give him an insight into fans’ fondness for Taylor.