Penrith coach Ivan Cleary labelled David Fifita a “marquee player” but was reluctant to talk about the Panthers’ pursuit of the Gold Coast Titans star amid revelations of a secret meeting to try to lure him south and a big contract offer.
Fifita has a two-year option to extend his Titans contract until the end of 2026 that he has until this Thursday to take up, with potential suitors lining up to throw potentially $1m a season at the State of Origin forward.
The Panthers have lost a truckload of talent in the wake of their three-straight premierships and with premiership forward James Fisher-Harris set to join the departures list at the end of the season Fifita could be a target.
Cleary met with Fifita in Sydney on Sunday, sparking a flurry of speculation and it’s since been reported the Panthers offered him a deal in excess of $850,000 a season.
But on Monday the premiership-winning coach said he had his “quota” of talking about recruitment stories in 2024 already. Instead, he would only concede that his team was always looking to “evolve”.
“Respectfully, I’m not going to comment on recruitment today, he said.
“It’s a very sensitive issue, all recruitment, and it affects a lot of people, clubs, players, agents, families, and I think we’ve already filled our quota for recruitment stories this year.
“We’re always looking to evolve, that’s the challenge when you’re losing players and if you’re just staying the same the game will go past you. We’re always looking to evolve but if you do that there’s always a danger you can lose what you’re good at too, so that’s been a balance.
“We got that a little bit wrong last year. It’s not a challenge, it’s actually fun as a group to work out how that looks and I’m looking forward to doing that as we go.”
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