Reputational damage

Is David Fifita the most misunderstood player in the league?

On Sunday afternoon, around halftime of the Sharks-Dragons derby, news came filtering through that the Penrith Panthers and David Fifita were about to partake in a clandestine meeting the secrecy of which would make 12th century monks jealous.

Secret, that is, if you ignore all the media reporting and literal quotes from the Panthers football boss Matt Cameron around the whole scenario, but don’t let silly minutiae and semantics like ‘facts’ get in the way of your headlines Big Media.

In all seriousness, Fifita is a rare breed of not only footballer, but athlete in general. The athleticism, speed, agility and finesse of a cheetah all enveloped in the thick core of a small rhinoceros, there’s little wonder Fifita has been tabbed for higher honours (which he has been given) since basically the day he walked into the Brisbane Broncos first grade side six years ago as a raw boned hunk of clay brimming with endless potential.

Now this piece isn’t around David Fifita’s form this season or his potential fit in the Panthers side, although that does make me salivate. It should be stressed that at this stage these are nothing more than informal meetings, although Fifita’s contract situation will obviously stir up a hornet’s nest of speculation (he has an option he has to trigger by this Thursday for 2025 otherwise he becomes a free agent, I believe).

No, rather all this news has done is, to me, highlight how polarising and mischaracterised a talent like Fifita is by broader rugby league purveyors and perverts alike.

When Fifita burst onto the scene as that dynamic edge forward in 2018, tongues were left wagging at his tantalising blend of monolithic size and tremendous skill and finesse, a unique combination only reserved for the upper echelon of the game’s greats, and a level so few actually realise and reach, even when given the chance to do so

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To me, there are two distinct types of second rower in the modern game, and most current edge forwards can fit reasonably well into one of two buckets. You have your workmanlike edge forwards, players that are extensions of the middle but with more athleticism to play out in space, yet maybe lack the refinement in their attacking game.

Then you have your firebrand attacking edge forwards that aren’t the highest usage or numbers-driven, but can break games open through individual brilliance, whether it be via a barnstorming run or setting up a man on the outside with some sleight of hand or rare finesse, a draw and pass, some good vision. These players can be attacking outlets, and can be a “third receiver” extension of the halves, and could also shift into the centres if needed.

Is it an exact science? No of course not, but I’m trying to highlight the different skillsets of the modern day edge forward.

Coming through, Fifita would’ve fit comfortably into that second bucket, a player who had quality not quantity, but of course that isn’t good enough for the modern fan that wants do everything, all the time superstars.

Through his first three seasons in the league, with Brisbane, Fifita averaged 10.9 runs and 21.8 tackles per game. Pretty good numbers for an edge forward that was just turning 20 years old. By comparison, in his three year stretch from 2020-2022 when Kikau was named a Dally M Second Rower of the Year each year, Viliame Kikau was averaging 10.7 runs and 22.7 tackles per game.

Yet, by the end of his Penrith tenure, Kikau had garnered a reputation as a two way monster, a rare attacking threat who had also developed into one of the best edge defenders, especially in the back end of the 2022 season where it really came into focus.

Fifita, on the other hand, somehow became typecast as a style-over-substance luxury player, someone the Titans were silly to pay premium cash for, someone who only cared about his numbers and not the team.

So what did Fifita do?

He became the workman.

This season, among second rowers as defined on Fox Sports’ stats page, Fifita ranks first in the competition in runs per game, immediately ahead of the likes of Mitch Barnett, Haumole Olakau’atu, Jaydn Su’A, Hudson Young and Angus Crichton.

In terms of tackles per game this season, he’s only down in the 30s ranking wise, but that’s still at 25 per game, far and away above his output from a few years ago, and in the same ballpark as known workhorse edge forwards like Liam Martin and Ryan Matterson.

Bear in mind though that he’s doing all this in 66 minutes per game, while shuffling between the bench and starting lineup, all while coming off an offseason pectoral injury (his far less talented teammate Beau Fermor is averaging 81 minutes per game for reference, the delights of golden point).

Fifita has upped his output and developed into a real two way player, and it’s clear to see when you watch Titans games. The Titans look uttelry devoid of ideas outside of anything Fifita can provide, and he’s often found infield looking for a carry to help out, or even swinging over to the right to join in an attack on the opposite side of the field, and never shirking his defensive responsibilities.

The reputation that Fifita is somehow a lazy player could not be further from the truth, and any doubts on his ability to fit into the most manic and frenzied system in the league from a conditioning and effort standpoint in Penrith should that move materialise should be immediatelly quelled.

Fifita was labelled as a lazy showpony, so he upped his numbers and became what the talking heads wanted from him, which was more empty effort calories, I assume to appease some Satanic Supercoach god I have no intention of learning about, except now that he’s a workman people don’t want that anymore either.

Fifita is overused if anything, he SHOULD be that luxury Ferrari in the garage. He should be the icing on a beautiful cake or the gold leaf on a fine dining experience. The problem is he’s never had the full meal around him to compliment his outstanding skillset.

Fifita is a reigning Dally M Second Rower of the Year, has represented Tonga at a World Cup, and was the first player born in the 2000s to play Origin, debuting as a 19 year old in 2019.

He’s a Ferrari being treated like a Datsun, being taken down to the shops to get milk instead of being let free on the open roads of the Amalfi Coast.

The Gold Coast Titans should be tried at the Hague for the damage they’ve done to Fifita’s reputation.