{"id":300174,"date":"2023-05-24T23:36:33","date_gmt":"2023-05-24T23:36:33","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/?p=300174"},"modified":"2023-05-24T23:58:54","modified_gmt":"2023-05-24T23:58:54","slug":"cop-a-smack-blues-sent-ominous-fifita-warning","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/?p=300174","title":{"rendered":"'Cop a smack': Blues sent ominous Fifita warning"},"content":{"rendered":"

Gold Coast Titans<\/a> wrecking ball David Fifita<\/a> is back in Queensland colours, having not played since game two of the 2021 State of Origin series\ufeff, and Maroons selector Darren Lockyer<\/a> believes there's a new test waiting for him.<\/p>\n

Fifita will start in the second-row at the Adelaide Oval after Felise Kaufusi was suspended, Kurt Capewell dropped and Jeremiah Nanai ruled out through injury.<\/p>\n

Lockyer said Fifita's form at club level had more than warranted his selection. \ufeff<\/p>\n

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"\ufeffI think he's shown how motivated he is by the way he's playing for the Titans," Lockyer said on Wide World of Sports' QLDER<\/em><\/a>.<\/p>\n

\"David<\/p>\n

"He's definitely got fitter, he's getting through longer minutes and they're quality minutes so there's a lot of things there to like about his game.<\/p>\n

"Billy is big on watching players and making sure they've got good habits in their games and got effort on effort so Billy wouldn't pick David if he didn't think he was capable of doing that."<\/p>\n

However, despite the Titans regular's form this season, Lockyer believes Fifita will need to go to another level next Wednesday night. \ufeff<\/p>\n

"I guess the test for him will be playing long periods of time at this level, that'll be a different test for him," he said.<\/p>\n

\"Billy<\/p>\n

"He's getting through a lot of minutes for the Titans but this is different … he's got to wait for the opposition to fatigue to bring his power game and that's not easy – you've got to get through a long period of time before that happens."<\/p>\n

Selected in the NSW Blues side is Fifita's former Broncos teammate Tevita Pangai Junior.<\/p>\n

Watch the 2023 State of Origin series LIVE and exclusive on Channel 9 and<\/strong><\/em> 9Now<\/strong><\/em><\/a><\/p>\n

Many believe the Bulldogs prop's inclusion is a way of adding mongrel to its pack.<\/p>\n

Immortal Wally Lewis \ufeffsaid that could only enhance Fifita's performance.<\/p>\n

"I don't think there'll be too many \ufeffQueenslanders upset if they saw David cop a smack in the chops to fire him up," he said.<\/p>\n

\"Cameron<\/p>\n

"When he gets fired up, you don't want to be in the opposition … if there's a brick wall that needs to be knocked over he'll be doing it free of charge as long as it's got a NSW jersey on it."<\/p>\n

Fifita's run of form at the Titans has coincided with veteran playmaker Kieran Foran's arrival at the club with the premiership winner constantly setting his second-rower up against smaller defenders in the line.<\/p>\n

Stream the NRL premiership 2023 live and free on<\/strong><\/em> 9Now<\/strong><\/em><\/a><\/p>\n

Lockyer explained that putting Fifita together with Cameron Munster \ufeffwill provide a similar spark to the Maroons' attack on the edge.<\/p>\n

"I think Foran has been pretty handy \ufefffor David at the Titans and I think Munster (will be too) … he likes to run the football, he draws defenders into him, and he can even get offloads away," he said.<\/p>\n

"Munster can draw maybe two defenders into him and take the extra defender off David, I think that's very beneficial for the Maroons."<\/p>\n

\ufeff\ufeff\ufeff<\/em>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":"

Gold Coast Titans wrecking ball David Fifita is back in Queensland colours, having not played since game two of the 2021 State of Origin series\ufeff, […]<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":300176,"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\/300174"}],"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=300174"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/300174\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":300181,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/300174\/revisions\/300181"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/300176"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=300174"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=300174"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=300174"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}