Million Dollar Man: David Fifita, the richest benchwarmer in NRL history

David Fifita was perhaps the most scrutinised of the players who moved clubs ahead of the 2021 season, given the huge sum of money the Titans forked out to lure him south from the Broncos.

Fifita’s early returns suggested the Gold Coast had made the right call to sign the Queensland rep, Fifita having scored nine tries, including two hat-tricks, by Round 7.

While the club was 4-3, you couldn’t fault their new recruit, whose strike rate for crossing the stripe would have had Alex Johnston sweating that a forward was going to take his Ken Irvine Medal as the competition’s leading try scorer.

It’s worth noting that seven of these tries, including both trebles, occurred in matches where the 21-year-old played the full 80 minutes.

Yet in Round 14, Justin Holbrook moved his strike forward to the bench and he only started four more games for the rest of the season.

So while Fifita’s 17 tries for the season was the most at his club and of any forward in the comp – his 155 tackle breaks was also the best for the whole NRL – the story of his season instead became whether the Gold Coast were getting value for money paying a benchwarmer a reported $1.2 million salary.

Look, it’s a fair question. A wage of that size brings significant expectations, not least being that when the game is on the line, you’re the guy demanding the ball, which is difficult to do from the pine.

I’ll admit that’s a glib interpretation of Fifita’s role, because his time on the bench tended to be limited to the first 20 or so minutes of the game – it was rare he wouldn’t be on the park at the end of proceedings.

Perhaps a better way to phrase it is that salaries of this size demand that you are the person in your team most responsible for the match’s outcome.

And while the Titans played finals footy – and went within a whisker of making the second week – their 10-14 season makes the argument they needed someone making more of a difference to the outcome more often.

David Fifita (Photo by Brett Hemmings/Getty Images)

For his part, Fifita said he was content to play wherever as long as his team was winning.

“It’s good hey, I guess it’s something new for myself. Justin keeps it simple for me and I go out there and play footy,” he told NRL.com heading into the finals.

“Eventually I want to start but it’s what’s best for the team if we’re getting the wins.

“Beau Fermor and Kevie [Proctor] on the edges there are doing a good job.”

The problem with this clichéd response was that it wasn’t actually correct.

While the Titans were coming off a 44-0 thumping of the Warriors when he gave the quote, the club had lost their three preceding matches.

So it’s not like Fifita went to the bench and suddenly the team clicked, going on a winning streak that was sadly ended by a Patrick Herbert brainfart in the finals. Their results with Fifita out of the starting 13 could be described as mixed at best.

And that’s a different quote: “Eventually I want to start but it’s what’s best for the team if we’re getting the wins sometimes but losing about as often.”

So where does that leave Fifita heading into 2021? Well, Fermor and Proctor are still at the club, so based on the end of last year’s teamsheets, the big fella will continue to wear the No.16.

But surely someone in the Titans’ front office has taken Holbrook aside and – while assuring the coach it’s his team to run and no one is telling him what to do – told him that starting David Fifita would be much better for team cohesion, because there’s nothing worse for the morale of a joint than the coach getting sacked.

(Photo by Ian Hitchcock/Getty Images)

David Fifita is too good to waste on the bench, especially given his relatively tender age – maybe his energy will need to be preserved as he approaches the end of his career, but that should be more than a decade away.

For now he should be an 80-minute player, especially given both the money he makes and the tries he was scoring when he was on the park from the first to final whistles.

Million Dollar Man series
A look at each club’s million-dollar man – the player broadly acknowledged to be taking up the largest individual chunk of the salary cap (even if they aren’t actually quite grossing seven figures).
» Can Tevita Pangai Jr finally put it all together at the Bulldogs?
» An off year or the beginning of the end for Jason Taumalolo?
» Scorned by Souths, it’s Reynolds to the rescue in Brisbane
» How much blame does Luke Brooks deserve for the Wests Tigers’ finals drought?
» Addin Fonua-Blake took the green but can he stop seeing red?
» Ben Hunt and how a single moment can define an entire career
» Jack Wighton wins awards but can he win a comp?
» Andrew Fifita’s busted knees, induced coma and $100K per game

Best-case scenario
Fifita’s try-scoring feats last year, particularly early in the season, earned him many a comparison to the great Steve Menzies.

However, while they share an ability to find the line, the Beaver’s most memorable efforts were in tandem with the incomparable Cliff Lyons, while Fifita’s best to date have been freakish, individual efforts.

What would take the young man’s game to the next level, a Menzies-like level, would be to develop a great on-field relationship with one of his halves.

If, for example, young Toby Sexton starts putting his rampaging backrower through gaps on a regular basis, Fifita will only score more. What’s more, other Titans will likely score more as well, because Fifita will become a far more effective decoy runner.

True, the Gold Coast’s defence is in greater need of improvement than their attack, but the team that scores the most points wins the game, so improving their try-scoring potency isn’t going to harm the side’s chances of again making the finals – and this time getting to at least the second week.

Worst-case scenario
After the seemingly never-ending fiasco that was ‘where will Fifita play in 2021’ that we endured in 2020, can you believe he’s a free agent again in a little over eight months?

Maybe the Gold Coast will have him locked away before it all gets to that, but if Fifita spends the first half of the season playing limited minutes in a losing side, how keen do you think he’ll be to stick around?

For that matter, how keen do you think the club will be to retain him on his current pay packet?

A season on the bench would potentially not only be worse for team performance, but may lead to a player watching his market value plummet and thus begin to kick stones.

That could lead to an unsettled camp in general and for the wheels to come off on the Gold Coast.

The squad looks too strong to be wooden spooners, but a disgruntled David Fifita would inevitably result in a poor season for the club and a bottom-four finish.