Locky says focus on Fifita will rise
BRISBANE’S former golden boy Darren Lockyer has warned David Fifita there will be nowhere to hide at the Titans as the highest-paid forward in the NRL next year.
Underscoring the salary boom in today’s game, Fifita will join the Titans on a $1.25 million deal – more than double the $600,000 Lockyer earned when he led the Broncos to their most recent premiership in 2006.
At his peak, Lockyer was among the top earners in the NRL alongside the likes of Andrew Johns and Brad Fittler and all had to cope with the burden of expectation as highly paid superstars.
Now on $300,000, Fifita’s salary will increase by a staggering 300 per cent next year.
The first season of his three-year Titans deal will make him the joint highestpaid player in the NRL with Daly Cherry-Evans and Lockyer says Fifita’s sevenfigure contract will mean the back-rower must perform every week.
“That’s what comes with the $1 million deals,” said Lockyer, now a Broncos board member.
“There are a few guys in the game now earning $1 million deals or more and for them it’s on every week – you have to deliver each week.
“When they don’t or their team isn’t winning, the first people that get mentioned are the players earning the big dollars.
“It’s going to be part of his learning curve. It will be good for his development learning to cope with that pressure.”
While his pay packet applied pressure, Lockyer says he felt more burdened by the famous Broncos brand and upholding the performance benchmarks expected of a Brisbane captain.
“I did feel the expectation of playing for the Broncos,” he said.
“When you are a senior player and the captain, there is always that expectation and pressure there, but I never felt like I was under pressure because of what I was being paid.
“The money in the game now is huge. There’s big dollars at stake.”
Broncos veteran Darius Boyd believes Fifita can cope with the responsibility of spearheading a Titans finals campaign next year.
“It’s well publicised all the time that the guys who earn more money are spoken about more and judged more critically than guys who earn less money,” Boyd said.
“But at the end of the day, he is going to get better as a player and a guy like Mal Meninga (Titans culture chief) can really help him out support wise and growing his game.”