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My money's on Fifita playing rugby next year

31st March, 2014
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31st March, 2014
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Andrew Fifita will end up playing rugby union next year, but not in Australia. I’ve been fiddling with all of the pieces in this fascinating jigsaw puzzle in a bid to try to put the picture together, but it’s hard.

Nobody who has been directly involved in the process, whether it be from the Canterbury club or Fifita’s management, has come out and said exactly what happened, so we’re left to fit bits of information together with a few guesses.

The Bulldogs issued a media release in which CEO Raelene Castle said that after signing a Memorandum of Understanding with Fifita, they could not agree on the final terms of the contract and had ceased negotiations.

Castle was subsequently interviewed and said that while she wasn’t impressed by Fifita’s words in an interview late last week, when he said he wished he’d gone to rugby union instead because then he “wouldn’t be getting all the shit I’ve been catching”, that wasn’t why Canterbury withdrew.

She also dismissed a rumour the problem with negotiations was that a third-party sponsorship aspect of the deal had fallen over.

Since then, stories have been flying around that Fifita wanted to get out of the Canterbury deal himself anyway, and so was not unhappy with the outcome.

Fifita’s words in that interview, in which he also said his heart was “still in Cronulla and it always will be”, sounded like those of someone who wasn’t just blowing off a bit of steam but who was not comfortable with his decision.

That’s not to say the deal couldn’t have still gone ahead.

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My suspicion is that the Bulldogs were having second thoughts themselves, ahead of that interview. Even allowing for Fifita’s undoubted ability, their decision to offer him a reported $850,000 per season when they already had a stock of big forwards with above-average ability was questionable.

We don’t know what went on inside the club, whether the decision to recruit Fifita for a fortune went down poorly among the players – particularly those other forwards, one or two of whom probably thought they may be moved on to make room under the salary cap.

It may have been an issue that compelled the club to reconsider.

Then there was the sight of the Canterbury forwards steamrolling their Melbourne counterparts in the game in Perth on Saturday night. It was a reminder of how well the Bulldogs are travelling up front, not only with their established players but also with David Klemmer coming through.

That kid turned just 20 in December. He’s going to be a star.

Fifita’s provocative comments may have caused the ball to roll a little faster, but I doubt they were what got it rolling in the first place.

Maybe the Bulldogs are now going to pour everything they’ve got into trying to sign a fullback from a rival club. So where to next year for Fifita, after his deal with Cronulla runs out?

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The Sharks would gladly swallow their pride and take him back, but although he would still be very well paid if they stuck to their last offer of a reported $700,000 per season, it would be less than the Bulldogs offered.

Rugby union in Australia doesn’t appear to be an option. It either won’t or can’t compete with the Fifita’s offers in league. An ARU official made a telling comment yesterday that if Fifita wanted to talk to it about playing “it would need to be for rugby reasons and not based on the earning capacity he could demand in league”.

But there is apparently plenty of money available in rugby overseas, powered by rich television deals, that someone might fancy splashing on Fifita, who talked in his interview about having grown up playing rugby and said “I will eventually go to union”.

Fifita could stay with Cronulla. That appears the most likely option for him in league.

But I wonder if, after his experience in at least attracting a massive offer from Canterbury, and with his talk in that interview of eventually chasing “another dream”, staying with the Sharks might now seem like an anti-climax to him.

Has he, perhaps, already moved on from league in his own mind?

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