Just after 8pm on Wednesday, Nick Politis’ phone rang. David Fifita’s agent, Michael Hudson, was on the line.
With his client mulling over lucrative offers from two of rugby league’s powerhouse clubs, Fifita wanted to have a conversation with the man largely considered as one of the game’s most powerful figures.
“Ti kanis,” Fifita uttered in Greek in his first correspondence with the 82-year-old Kytherian, whose interest in the back-rower piqued instantly.
At that point Politis, fed up with waiting for an answer, was contemplating pulling the four-year, $3.3 million offer on the table to the 24-year-old.
Politis hates losing almost as much as he loves winning, and the thought of losing Fifita in a battle with Penrith was beginning to outweigh his enthusiasm for having the 115-kilogram wrecking ball in his football team next year.
A simple “how are you?” in Greek later, thanks to the influence of Fifita’s Greek-Indigenous girlfriend and NRLW player Shaylee Bent, and the Roosters supremo was hooked again.
Ivan Cleary, Nick Politis, David FifitaCredit: Getty
“You know I barrack for Queensland, right?” Politis, a former director of the NSWRL, begrudgingly and assumedly tactically divulged to the Maroons representative in the hope of finding more common ground with the footballer 58 years his junior.
“Do you know where Blackall is? That’s where I’m from.”
The notion that the Roosters, having heard of Penrith’s interest in Fifita via this masthead’s breaking news take on Sunday, entered the race at the 11th hour to steal his signature couldn’t be further from the truth.
In reality, the Roosters were in the conversation well before Penrith. A conversation the Dragons were never in.
David Fifita will be leaving the Gold Coast for Bondi at the end of the season.Credit: Getty
Fifita had flown to Sydney for a secret meeting with Roosters coach Trent Robinson almost a fortnight ago, weeks after his management first approached the club to gauge their interest in his services.
At the time contemplating whether he would trigger a $1 million-a-season option in his Titans contract for 2025 and 2026, Fifita wanted to know if any other club in a premiership window would want him.
He got more than he bargained for when, after James Fisher-Harris was granted a release from Penrith to join the Warriors from next season on compassionate grounds, Penrith entered the equation.
At a recruitment and retention committee meeting just days after they officially announced the departure of the Kiwi skipper, Fifita’s name was brought up.
Jarome Luai and James Fisher-Harris will leave the Panthers at the end of this season.Credit: Getty
With young props Lindsay Smith and Liam Henry developing at an impressive rate, coupled with the realisation there was no like-for-like replacement for Fisher-Harris, it made more sense for the club to bolster their second-row stocks.
They’d previously lost Viliame Kikau, Kurt Capewell and Zac Hosking, plus didn’t have a plethora of viable options coming through the system in that position.
The Panthers, though, did not know whether they had permission to speak to Fifita given he had an option in his favour at the Titans for the next two seasons.
The Panthers sought clarity from the NRL salary cap auditor to determine if they were in breach of the game’s anti-tampering rules by exploring the possibility of signing him and, if they did manage to secure his services, what the NRL would likely determine his value in the salary cap to be.
Nathan and Ivan Cleary celebrate the 2022 grand final win.Credit: Getty
The Panthers cancelled their original meeting with Fifita, who had been scheduled to fly to Sydney to meet with Ivan Cleary last week, until they got the answers from head office. It resulted in Penrith, a few days later, tabling a three-year deal worth about $850,000 a season.
Cleary, however, wanted to meet Fifita in person and organised a hit-and-run mission near Sydney airport last Sunday afternoon, the day after the Titans’ loss to the Melbourne Storm. Coach Des Hasler and the Titans were none the wiser.
The Panthers were convinced that everything they had to offer from a football point of view, ticked all the boxes Fifita was looking to tick and their premiership window was open wider than the one overlooking the eastern suburbs.
There was no bigger drawcard than the coach’s son and the game’s best player, Nathan Cleary, who personally phoned Fifita to sell him the dream.
David Fifita’s partner, Shaylee Bent.Credit: Louise Kennerley
Bent, Fifita’s long-time partner, also hails from Glenmore Park having played her local footy at the Brumbies down the road from Penrith. Her family still reside in the area and was seen as a trump card in their quest to convince him that living near Penrith Beach was better than Bondi Beach.
The Panthers, however, aren’t expected to field a team in the NRLW competition until 2027 and didn’t have the added bonus of being able to contact Bent’s manager Liam Ayoub, like the Roosters did, to signal their interest in luring her from the Titans for 2025 and beyond.
The Roosters were privately concerned that they were going to miss out. They’d offered him an extra year than Penrith worth around $825,000 a year plus a car (five included per team as part of the NRL salary cap at the value of $20,000).
They’d already begun making plans around roster management with so many back-rowers at their disposal, including Angus Crichton, Sitili Tupouniua, Nat Butcher, Egan Butcher and boom rookie Siua Wong.
Angus Crichton has arguably been in career-best form over the past month.Credit: Getty
The Roosters had already indicated they wanted to try and retain the off-contract Crichton as well as Fifita, and asked his management to keep them in the loop as he entertained several expressions of interest from rival clubs.
The odd man out was always likely to be Tupouniua who, on a contract worth around $650,000 per season, is an attractive prospect for rival clubs looking to strengthen their forward pack.
He would also serve the benefit of clearing significant salary cap space for the Roosters to strengthen their outside backs and halves with Joseph Manu, Joseph Suaalii and Luke Keary all finishing up at the end of this season.
Those plans looked as though they would be thrown out the window when, on Wednesday night – the same night Politis spoke with Fifita – the club got wind of a text message Ivan Cleary had sent Fifita that was swaying him towards the Panthers.
Justin Holbrook watches on as David Fifita trains with the Titans during last year’s preseason.Credit: NRL Photos
Robinson then sent a message of his own and later enjoyed a 45-minute phone call with the back-rower to reiterate the club’s desire to lure him and how they planned to use him under the attacking plans of assistant coach Justin Holbrook.
Holbrook was the secret weapon in the Roosters’ pursuit of Fifita given the strength of the bond they developed during their time together on the Gold Coast.
When Fifita signed with the Titans, he had a clause inserted into his deal that stipulated he would become a free agent if Holbrook was sacked as head coach. That became a reality last year, forcing a desperate Titans club to renegotiate a new deal for both Tino Fa’asuamaleaui and Fifita – the latter requesting and receiving an option for 2025 and 2026 worth $1 million each year.
On Thursday morning, after a restless night contemplating his future with his manager at his Gold Coast home, Fifita arrived at Titans headquarters on the players’ day off to meet with Hasler.
He broke the news of his decision not to trigger the option in his deal, following that up with a WhatsApp message in the players’ group chat to inform his teammates of his forthcoming defection.
He told them that he was heading to Sydney in 2025; albeit destination unknown. Phone calls from both Nathan and Ivan that morning only prolonged a decision on his future.
Then at around 4.15pm, after days of being courted by the game’s two premier clubs and unaware that Penrith were willing to give him a fourth year if he asked for it, Fifita picked up the phone and contacted Politis.
“I’m coming,” Fifita told him before informing anyone else of his decision.
“Great news,” Politis responded in celebration. “Now I can teach you some more Greek.”
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