Nathan Cleary is said to be a big reason why David Fifita is set to link up with the Penrith Panthers from next season after it was revealed the star No. 7 has expressed his desire to play alongside the damaging Titan.
Due to a contract clause, Fifita has until Thursday 8pm (Round 10 kick off) to opt out of his deal with the Titans from 2025.
Gold Coast have reportedly resigned themselves to the fact that Fifita will leave the club at seasons end, with the Panthers and Roosters the two clubs vying for the Origin representative’s signature.
NRL360’s James Graham asked the panel what will get Fifita to choose between the Panthers and Roosters, with Fox League’s James Hooper naming Nathan Cleary as the main reason.
“Penrith’s strong sell is that they’ve got the best player in the game in Nathan Cleary,” Hooper said on NRL360.
“He’s personally spoken to David Fifita and has told him how much he’d like to have a wrecking ball like him into the Penrith system and the opportunity to be creating space for him and the chance to score tries.
“That’s why I think the Panthers have their noses in front on the negotiating table.”
Hooper went onto say that the Roosters were actually the first club to inquire about Fifita, but were “blindsided” when it was revealed last Sunday that Penrith were keen to enter the race.
“We know the Roosters are an extremely powerful club and we know their track record when it comes to landing major signatures. I think they got a little bit blindsided by Penrith on this.
“The Roosters actually started to talking to David Fifita prior to the Panthers entering the arm wrestle. The Roosters were in first and thought they were flying under the radar, and the Panthers have blown them out of the water at the last minute by coming to the party on Sunday.”
Graham pointed to the impact Fifita had with the Titans when playing outside Kieran Foran, and that the chance for Fifita to link up with Cleary will be “horrible news” for the rest of the NRL.
“That phone call from Nathan Cleary would be a huge factor in this when you think of David Fifita and the impact of Kieran Foran up on the Gold Coast and how that opened up more opportunities for him,” Graham said.
He became that crash, bang, wallop player. There were tries he scored on year last year where he’d just tap the ball and just run and go and score. It was kind of like you were playing Jonah Lomu Rugby in 1996 on the PlayStation.
“This is horrible news for the rest of the competition.”
NRL360 host Braith Anasta and The Daily Telegraph’s Michael Carayannis agreed, with Anasta believing the duo can form a “deadly combination”.
“Nathan Cleary can really unlock David Fiifta. Maybe he needs to change his style a little bit but as a half and playing back in the day with the likes of Andrew Ryan, you do form combinations with these guys and if you got the best halfback in the competition and a guy who’s probably touted to be the best forward coming there, it could really be a deadly, deadly combination,” Anasta said.
Carayannis added: “We’ve seen glimpses of his combination with Kieran Foran, who’s struggled to get his body on the park and they’ve (Titans) have struggled with consistency. Imagine Fifita outside Nathan Cleary. It’ll go down as one of the best halves-back rower combinations we’ve seen in a long time.
“There will be a bit of prestige for David Fifita to be the player that Penrith have splurged on, because they haven’t gone outside of their circle too often. They’ve added elements to their squad, but they haven’t gone and landed a marquee signing.
“I think this will be huge for them.”