How Titans’ lethal weapon Fifita can be more deadly
IT'S the $1.2m question the Titans must answer if they’re to keep their season alive: how do they get the most out of star forward David Fifita?
It’s a measure of Fifita’s incredible ability that he can score 17 tries, make 22 line breaks, break 151 tackles and throw 44 offloads and pundits can still ask if we’re seeing the best of the barnstorming backrower.
But according to champion halfback Cooper Cronk, he could be even more dangerous with just one added element to his game.
“He’s doing all this great stuff through pure, natural ability, natural instincts and power. Imagine if he developed some slight subtleties, some nuance, someone ball-playing to him that put him a metre and a half on the inside shoulder or outside shoulder of the defender?” Fox League analyst Cronk said.
“Some deception would give him an even better chance of doing damage with that physique of his.
“I would have loved to have played with a backrower with the physical capabilities of David Fifita. It’s hard to find any parallels in recent history.
“There’s nuances – if the halves at the Titans can go to the line and engage the defenders a little more, similar to what Nathan Cleary is doing at the moment, that would make Fifita a lot more difficult to handle.
“But David needs to add more presence, more voice, more acceleration to the game itself.”
There’s no secret as to what it will take to open things up for Fifita – the Queensland Origin representative must forge a stronger combination with his halves in order to get the ball when, where and how he needs it.
Two-time Dally M winner Cronk excelled at bringing his backrowers into the game, with the likes of Ryan Hoffman, Kevin Proctor and Tohu Harris all excelling off his hip.
Some might say Fifita can’t strike up a similar relationship given the changes in the Titans halves this year and his own demotion to the bench, but Cronk disagrees.
“I don’t buy that. I think all the work is done at training. Yes, there have been some changes but there’s 35 men in the Titans squad and there’s time to do that from Monday to Friday, whether you’re the starting halfback or the backup or if David is off the bench,” Cronk said. Grab a combination and do 15, 20 minutes after every session.”
Cronk will have the chance to analyse Fifita’s performance as it happens on the panel for the Fox League pre and postgame shows on Saturday.