{"id":270278,"date":"2023-02-12T11:16:30","date_gmt":"2023-02-12T12:16:30","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/?p=270278"},"modified":"2023-02-12T14:58:35","modified_gmt":"2023-02-12T14:58:35","slug":"legends-bullish-bid-to-unlock-misfiring-nrl-gun","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/?p=270278","title":{"rendered":"Legend's bullish bid to 'unlock' misfiring NRL gun"},"content":{"rendered":"

Titans<\/a> ambassador Gorden Tallis<\/a> is confident\ufeff the riddle that is David Fifita<\/a> can be solved.<\/p>\n

Tallis made that clear during the Titans' pre-season match against the Broncos on the Sunshine Coast on Sunday night, which resulted in a 24-all draw.<\/p>\n

Fifita was a disappointment in 2022, drifting in and out of games, failing to impress with his work rate in defence and only crossing for seven tries \u2014 a dip from 17 four-pointers in 2021.<\/p>\n

READ MORE:<\/strong> 'Confused' Smith brutally honest on 'poor' debut\ufeff<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n

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The enigmatic second-rower has also started a clump of games on the bench at the Titans.\ufeff<\/p>\n

Queensland State of Origin coach Billy Slater overlooked him for Maroons selection in 2022.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

But Tallis believes Fifita can rediscover his damaging best\ufeff.<\/p>\n

"I think we can unlock David Fifita," Tallis said on Fox League.<\/p>\n

"Kieran Foran just being so experienced … he's won competitions.<\/p>\n

"Just to unlock something … they just need a change of angle and (to) get him one on one.<\/p>\n

"We all know what David Fifita can do.\ufeff"<\/p>\n

Tallis hopes Foran, who penned a two-year deal with the Titans<\/a>, can get Fifita running threatening lines with the assistance of the former Manly playmaker's expert passing.<\/p>\n

Titans coach Justin Holbrook is desperate for Fifita to emerge from his rut, especially as the 22-year-old is reportedly earning $1.2 million per season.<\/p>\n

Phil Gould believes Fifita's price tag distorted the player market<\/a>.\ufeff<\/p>\n

\ufeff"If you go out and pay $1.2 million for a rookie forward who's had 30 games because he scores a try every now and then, then what's James Tedesco worth? What is Nathan Cleary worth?" Gould said on Wide World of Sports' Six Tackles with Gus<\/em><\/a> podcast last year.<\/p>\n

"They play him off the bench … you can't have a bench player on that kind of money.<\/p>\n

"You can't even have a back-rower on that sort of money unless he's producing 80-minute performances every week and winning you games."\ufeff<\/p>\n

\"Why<\/p>\n

Gould added that it was "irresponsible" of the Titans to sign Fifita on $1.2 million per season.<\/p>\n

"I said it would end up stifling them and I didn't know if it would end up producing any better results, which is the way it's turned out," Gould said.<\/p>\n

"Now that's not David Fifita's fault. He is a very talented player.<\/p>\n

"It actually caused dramas with the whole player market, with the values in the market. When you get an outlier purchase like that, where someone goes and pays a ridiculous amount of money for a young back-rower, then the other back-rowers, fullbacks, halves, forwards in the competition say, 'Well, if he's worth that, what am I worth?'.<\/p>\n

"It created a whole false economy and a whole false expectation.<\/p>\n

"It was an irresponsible signing \u2014 on the money perspective \u2014 for the game, for the game itself."<\/p>\n

The Titans had another woeful season in 2022, finishing in 13th on the ladder.<\/p>\n

They'll open their 2023 campaign in a clash with Wests Tigers at Leichhardt Oval on March 5.\ufeff<\/p>\n

For a daily dose of the best of the breaking news and exclusive content from Wide World of Sports, subscribe to our newsletter by<\/strong><\/em> clicking here<\/strong><\/em><\/a>!<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Titans ambassador Gorden Tallis is confident\ufeff the riddle that is David Fifita can be solved. Tallis made that clear during the Titans' pre-season match against […]<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/270278"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=270278"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/270278\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":270280,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/270278\/revisions\/270280"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=270278"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=270278"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=270278"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}