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Manly hooker Manase Fainu has been found guilty of stabbing a man at a church event in 2019, leaving his NRL career all but over.
The 24-year-old has been unavailable to play under the NRL’s no-fault stand down policy for three years and will now face a custodial sentence of up to 25 years with a seven year no parole period. He intends to appeal and has been released on bail over the weekend.
Fainu stood accused of stabbing Faamanu Levi, a youth leader with the Church of Latter Day Saints in Wattle Grove, NSW, who suffered a punctured lung in the attack. It took the jury two hours to find him guilty at Parramatta District Court.
Manly have stood by him throughout the process and Fainu was supported in court by teammate Josh Aloiai while coach Des Hasler attended via videolink.
The Sea Eagles had allowed Api Koroisau to leave the club in 2019 to clear a way for Fainu, only for the stabbing incident to occur just weeks after the end of the season.
Fainu had been training with Manly in anticipation of a return to play but his last hopes of an NRL career now lie in the appeals process.
Canberra insist it’s ‘business as usual’ even as they deal with one of the most unprecedented weeks in NRL history with coach Ricky Stuart banned from communicating with the team.
Three assistant coaches – Andrew McFadden, Brett White and Mick Crawley – will share the head role in Stuart’s absence against St George Illawarra on Sunday as the mentor serves a one-game ban for calling Penrith half Jaeman Salmon “a weak-gutted dog”.
But the Raiders trained strongly on Thursday ahead of their must-win clash, McFadden telling reporters Stuart’s absence wouldn’t change the side’s preparation.
Canberra are one match and considerable point differential behind the eighth-placed Sydney Roosters with four games to play and almost certainly need to win all of their remaining matches to have any chance of playing finals.
“It’s business as usual in terms of the way we operate,” McFadden said. “We’ve got a pretty big hand on things in terms of assistant coaches with training anyway, Ricky’s very good at giving us that responsibility.
“We’re just working through that and we’ll divvy up all the other stuff. Every game is do or die now, we’ve got to keep winning … it’s very important we get back on track after a disappointing loss last week.”
(Photo by Mark Nolan/Getty Images)
Senior Raider Jack Wighton agreed and said the assistants were up to the task.
“It’s the same as every week. … we were trying to take a lot of ownership this year and guide the young fellas,” he told reporters.
“We’ve got three assistant coaches there that have been around for many years … you could never doubt none of them.
“Through the week the assistant coaches do most of the work anyway.”
Asked if the senior players wanted to win the game for Stuart who became the first coach to be banned for comments made at a press conference, Wighton said the team would treat the match as routinely as possible.
“The cards have been dealt and it’s something we can’t change, as a rugby league player you realise through your career a lot of things change on the spot,” he said.
“You have people go down on game day and you’ve just got to deal with it.
“This is just one of those things and to be fair, we’ve had a week to deal with it and put it behind us basically.”
Will Pryce. (Photo by Stu Forster/Getty Images)
Newcastle have confirmed the signing of two of the brightest prospects in the Super League with back-rower Kai Pearce-Paul and fullback Will Pryce set to join the club from 2024.
Pearce-Paul moves from Wigan, where he has been one of the standout young players in the comp, ranking third in the competition for offloads. He stands at 196cm, weighs over 100kg and generally plays as a back-rower, though has been moved to the centres of late.
Pryce comes will some of the best lineage in the British game. He is the son of Leon Pryce, who won four Super League titles and six Challenge Cups, as well as a raft of Great Britain and England caps, while several uncles and cousins were also first graders.
He burst onto the scene in 2021 and has played across the spine, featuring at 1, 6 and 7. His development this year has been hampered by a long suspension after a send off, but Pryce has continued to impress and will likely feature at the World Cup for Jamaica alongside Newcastle’s Dom Young.
St George Illawarra five-eighth Talatau Amone has signed a contract extension that will keep him at the club until at least the end of 2024.
Amone, 20, became the Dragons’ first-choice five-eighth this year after Corey Norman left the club and is enjoying a breakout season, having made his Test debut for Tonga and produced 12 try assists in 20 NRL games.
Amone had already been contracted until the end of 2023 but would have been free to negotiate with rivals from November 1.
The early contract extension is a strong endorsement from the Dragons, who will now turn their attention to re-signing his halves partner, Dally M Medal hopeful Ben Hunt.
“I am very proud to remain at the Dragons. It’s my home club and my family and I are very grateful for the opportunity,” Amone said.
“To see that the club believes in me to extend my time at the club definitely fills me with a lot of faith. I’m looking forward to repaying the Dragons back with good, consistent footy.”
Dragons general manager of football Ben Haran said the club felt Amone’s best was yet to come.
“While Talatau has demonstrated himself as a competent NRL player over the past 18 months, there is significant scope for further improvement over the coming two seasons,” Haran said.
Amone will line up at five-eighth when the Dragons face fellow top-eight hopefuls Canberra at GIO Stadium on Sunday.
Junior Amone. (Photo by Mark Nolan/Getty Images)
Eels star Isaiah Papali’i has been told to honour his contract with the Tigers by the RLPA while Wests captain James Tamou says the second-rower needs to put an end to speculation by making a call on his 2023 whereabout.
Parramatta coach Brad Arthur reiterated on Wednesday he would be happy for Papali’i to remain at the club while the Warriors are also an option as his partner, New Zealand netballer Elle Temu plays for the Auckland-based Northern Stars in the ANZ Premiership.
“We have told him and his management team to honour the contract…our expectations of players and also clubs is that they honour their contracts,” RLPA chief executive Clint Newton told SEN.
Tigers chairman Lee Hagipantelis insists he is confident Papali’i will stick to the three-year deal he signed last November, joining Penrith hooker Apisai Koroisau as the club’s big recruits for next season.
However reports emerged in July that Papali’i was considering going back on the move after his New Zealand national team coach Michael Maguire having been axed by the Tigers.
“He signed when ‘Madge’ was here, so he’s got every right to reassess his options,” Tamou said at the Tigers’ midweek media conference. “He was dealing with Madge, now he’s gone … now is the flow-on effect with these sorts of things happening.
“He’s got every reason to question ‘okay, where am I at now with this club?’ Obviously he’s had meetings with Madge and he’s come out publicly and said he’s the main reason for him to come to the Tigers.
“He has to make a decision, to give relief for the Tigers and for them to go searching.”
Parra are not trying to get him to break his contract but Arthur said: “If Ice wasn’t committed to the Tigers, I think his preference would be our club.”
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