Titans sweat on Fifita

Star yet to decide future

Des Hasler is “pretty confident” David Fifita won’t quit the Titans as Canberra leaves the door ajar for Gold Coast’s $1m man.

Fifita has left the Titans hanging when it comes to making a decision on the contract clause that gives him the power to walk out on Gold Coast this year.

As part of a $3m contract extension inked last year, the Titans agreed to insert a clause that allowed Fifita until round 10 this season to exit the deal if he wasn’t happy with the direction under Hasler following the sacking of Justin Holbrook.

It is now round 6 and Fifita is yet to inform the Titans of his intentions, leaving the club in recruitment limbo given the enormity of his contract in their lopsided salary cap.

The Titans’ rivals on Sunday night, Canberra, showed interest in Fifita when he last came off-contract and have not ruled out making another play for the 2023 Dally M backrower of the year if he wants to leave Gold Coast.

Titans coach Hasler confirmed Fifita was yet to make a decision.

“(There is no update) other than the fact it’s until round 10. Once that inevitably gets closer, I’d imagine everything will start to heat up a little bit more,” he said.

“That’s all I can really shed on it at the moment.

“I won’t go into any more details about it because there are none.

“I’m pretty confident he’ll stay.”

Fifita’s management is yet to hold talks with rival clubs, although they are aware of interest in the barnstorming Queensland Origin forward.

They are expected to get a greater gauge of the level of that interest in coming weeks, but for the moment Fifita has indicated he wants to concentrate on finding his best form and help the Titans secure their first win of the year.

Only a handful of clubs would have the salary cap space to take Fifita on board next season.

Fifita is only two games into his return from a pectoral injury but played the entire 80 minutes in the club’s last-start loss to North Queensland, running for 179m as he tried to inspire a Gold Coast win.

Hasler said it had been a balancing act to usher Fifita and Jayden Campbell (knee) back into the NRL following injury interrupted pre-seasons.

“We’ve had to manage Dave and ‘JC’ given they didn’t have off-seasons,” he said.

“The high performance group and medical have done a job running them into fitness while playing. That’s still a work in progress.

“They certainly add that potency we’re looking for in attack.”

After losses to the Dragons, Bulldogs, Dolphins and Cowboys, Hasler has wielded the axe on struggling halfback Tanah Boyd for the trip to Canberra.

Campbell is expected to start in the halves alongside Kieran Foran, allowing AJ Brimson to revert to his favoured position of fullback.